Milk-and-Dairy-Products-in-Human-Nutrition-FAO

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Award 2010 along with colleagues Paul Ross, Colin Hill, Gerald Fitzgerald, for
research on the application of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in fermented dairy products
to improve health and mechanistic basis of LAB and probiotic functionality.
Connie M. Weaver is Distinguished Professor and Head of the Department of
Nutrition Science at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States. In
2012 she received the Herbert Newby McCoy Award from Purdue University. In
2010 she was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of The National
Academies, United States. In 2008, she became Deputy Director of the Indiana
Clinical and Translational Science Institute, United States, which is funded by
the National Institutes of Health (NIH). From 2000 to 2010, she was Director
of the Purdue University–University of Alabama-Birmingham NIH Botanicals
Research Center. Her research interests include mineral bioavailability, calcium
metabolism and bone health. Dr Weaver is past-president of the American Society
for Nutritional Sciences and is on the Board of Trustees of the International Life
Sciences Institute, National Osteoporosis Foundation and Science Advisory Board
of Pharmavite. Dr Weaver was awarded Purdue University’s Outstanding Teaching
Award for her contributions in teaching. Dr Weaver was appointed to the 2005
Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee for Americans. She has published over
260 research articles. Dr Weaver received a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. in Food Science and
Human Nutrition from Oregon State University, United States, and a Ph.D. in
Food Science and Human Nutrition from Florida State University, United States.
Ramani Wijesinha-Bettoni is a consultant in the Nutrition Division at FAO
Headquarters. She graduated with a B.Sc. (Honours) in Chemistry from Imperial
College, London, United Kingdom, in 1996, with Communication of Scientific
Ideas as her third-year ancillary subject. She received her doctorate from the
University of Oxford for her research on the structure and folding of the milk
protein bovine α-lactalbumin. This was followed by more than six years of
postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford investigating the role of protein
denaturation in foods and studying a protein involved in allergy to peaches. Since
joining FAO in 2009, Dr Wijesinha-Bettoni has worked in the areas of food
composition and food matching (conducting research, contributing to various
INFOODs guidelines, and working as the Assistant Editor of the Journal of Food
Composition and Analysis until December 2010), and carried out commissioned
research and writing on food composition and biodiversity, protein-quality
evaluation, nutrition education for schools, complementary feeding for infants and
young children, and horticultural interventions for improved food security.