For questions on the European Scientific Committee, please contact European Scientific Committee
The European Scientific Committee determines the criteria for the European region. It consists of the following renowned scientists:
Prof. M. Gurinovic
University of Belgrade, Serbia
Prof. Mirjana Gurinovic is a well established Serbian nutrition hygiene expert and FAO specialist in the field of food and nutrition. She is currently Associate Research Professor at the Institute for Medical Research at the University of Belgrade. Former positions held by Professor Gurinovic include: Head of the Nutrition Department at the Public Health Institute in Subotica and Vice president of the Vojvodina’s Medical Doctor Association. She has published over 260 papers, abstracts and reports in local and international peer reviewed journals.
Prof. A.G. Pekcan
Haceteppe University, Turkey
Prof. Gülden Pekcan is the Head of the Community Nutrition Division at the Hacettepe University Faculty of Health Sciences Department of Nutrition and Dietetics in Ankara. She is heavily involved in research on special diets and the elaboration of nutrition strategies, and has participated in and coordinated a number of national and international collaborative studies. She has previously been an expert consultant in the development of a National Plan of Action for Food and Nutrition and has also been a member of several advisory committees and councils of national programmes, Ministries, UNICEF and FAO in Turkey, as well as on public health nutrition topics. She is a member of the Advisory Committee of Ministry of Health on iodine deficiency disorders and iodisation of salt, prevention of iron deficiency anemia, bone health and vitamin D deficiency, the national codex committee on nutrition and foods for special dietary uses, the Turkish Society of Public Health Genomics and Nutrigenetics (TOGEN), and the Advisory Board of the Foundation for the Advancement of the Mediterranean Diet (Spain). She is the local coordinator of EU F6 project EUROPREVOB and a participant in the BRAFO project.
Declaration of interest Prof. Pekcan
Prof. V. Somoza
University of Vienna, Austria
Prof. Dr. Veronika Somoza is Professor for Food Bioactivity at the University of Vienna, Austria. Previously, she was Associate Professor (tenured) at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and is the former Vice Director of the German Research Centre for Food Chemistry. She focuses her research on the Chemical identification and characterisation of bioactive food components and their metabolites by using various analytical techniques. A regular reviewer for numerous publications, she has already published over 75 papers in refereed journals and presented her abstracts at more than 85 conferences.
Prof. G. Vansant
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Prof. Greet Vansant was trained as a clinical nutritionist at Wageningen University and received a PhD in Medical Sciences at Antwerp University Belgium in 1990. Her main research interests are obesity, nutrition during pregnancy and socio-economic influences on lifestyle habits. She is currently working as professor for the department of Nutrition, Preventive Medicine at the Catholic University Leuven and is clinical scientific advisor at the university hospital. Professor Vansant is an active member of national and international scientific organizations, among which the National Health Council of Belgium and the advisory committee of the National Food Safety Authority. She is also Vice-President of the Belgian Nutrition Society and the Flemish Society for Clinical Nutrition. Since 1987, she has published approximately 330 papers, abstracts, book chapters and reports in international peer reviewed and national journals.
Declaration of interest Prof. Vansant
Prof. M. Raats
University of Surrey, UK
Prof. Monique Raats is Reader and Director of the Food, Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre at the University of Surrey. Prof. Raats previously worked at the Institute of Food Research, Health Education Authority and University of Oxford. Her portfolio of research is wide ranging in terms of topics addressed (e.g. food choice, policy development, food labelling), and methodologies used (e.g. qualitative, quantitative, stakeholder consultation). She has also been involved in the evaluation of health promotion programmes and developing tools for use in nutrition education. Since her arrival at the University of Surrey in 2000, she has played a central role in securing research funding for both national and European research projects. She has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers, 16 book chapters, and co-edited two books, "The Psychology of Food Choice" (2006) and "Food for the Ageing Population" (2008). She currently has a leadership role on a number EU-funded projects including FLABEL (Food Labelling to Advance Better Education for Life). She is also one of the founding members and recent secretary of the International Society of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity. She recently joined the UK's Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition.
Prof. dr. ir. K. de Graaf
Wageningen University & Research centre
Kees de Graaf is Chairman division of Human Nutrition and Professor in Sensory Science and Eating Behaviour at the Wageningen University & Research centre. He has been educated as a nutrition scientist at the same university. His key subject of research is Sensory and Eating Behaviour. In 1988 he received his PhD with a dissertation titled 'Psychophysical studies of mixtures of tastants’.