Centre for South Asian Studies

Profile

Lindsay Jaacks is a Professor of Global Health and Nutrition at The University of Edinburgh in the Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Systems. Prior to moving to Scotland, she was on the faculty at the Harvard School of Public Health. She has served as a consultant to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization on nutritious food environments. Formally trained in biology (Cornell), nutrition and epidemiology (UNC-Chapel Hill) her research aims to understand how to sustainably achieve food and nutrition security. This is important because the foods we eat account for nearly one-third of greenhouse gas emissions, and, reciprocally, climate change is already affecting our ability to produce food in the US and around the world.

To address these challenges, we need independent evaluations, policy coherence, success stories taken to scale, and a joined-up long-term approach. Underpinning all of these is the need for high-quality, high-resolution, high-frequency food systems data. Examples of her team’s current data-driven projects include leading national diet assessments in Scotland, a cluster-randomized controlled trial of the health effects of organic farming in India, and an Analytics Hub to support the implementation of the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act. Her work has been funded over the years by the National Institutes of Health, UK Research and Innovation, Wellcome Trust, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and The Royal Society of Edinburgh, among others.

Lindsay has published over 150 articles in leading health journals including The Lancet, JAMA and PLoS Medicine and has served as an expert advisor / commissioner on The Lancet Commission on Obesity, the National Diabetes Prevention Program Nutrition Convening by the CDC, and the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. She has also worked with the Scottish Government, the Ministry of Women and Child Development in India, and the Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh state governments in India.