Future food: health and sustainability

Dame Sue Ion GBE FREng FRS

Chair of the Royal Society Science, Industry and Translation Committee

Dame Sue Ion GBE FRS FREng is Hon President of the National Skills Academy for Nuclear. She was previously Chairman of the UK Nuclear Innovation Research Advisory Board (NIRAB). She represents the UK on a number of international review and oversight committees for the nuclear sector including the Euratom Science and Technology Committee which she chaired until late 2018. She was the only non-US member of the US Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee on which she has served from 2005-2020.She currently serves as a member of the Office of Nuclear Regulation Independent Advisory Panel.

Sue spent 27 years with British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) rising to the position of Chief Technology Officer in 1992, a post she held until 2006 when she assumed a number of mainly voluntary roles in Science and Engineering, including membership of the UK Council for Science and Technology and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). She was Vice President of the Royal Academy of Engineering 2002-2008 and chaired its MacRobert Committee 2013-2019. Sue was Deputy Chair of the Board of the University of Manchester until September 2018 and currently serves on the Board of the University of Central Lancashire.

Her core expertise is in materials science and engineering associated with the nuclear sector. Sue is a member of the Chief Scientific Advisor for Wales’s Science and Innovation Advisory Council. She has been a Visiting Professor in the Department of Materials at Imperial College since 2006, holds an Honorary Professorship at the University of Manchester and is now Chair of the Royal Society Science, Industry and Translation Committee.

Professor Cathie Martin FRS

John Innes Centre and University of East Anglia, UK

Cathie is a group leader at the John Innes Centre and Professor at the University of East Anglia. Her interests span from fundamental to applied plant science. She researches the relationship between food and health and how crops can be fortified to improve diets and address the global challenge of escalating chronic disease. This work has involved linking leading clinical and epidemiological researchers with plant breeders and metabolic engineers to develop scientific understanding of how diet can help to maintain health, promote healthy ageing and reduce the risk of chronic disease. Cathie is also involved in genetic screens to identify crops that lack toxins that cause nutritional diseases and has recently initiated a collaborative project with China to research Chinese medicinal plants.

Cathie was Editor-in-Chief of The Plant Cell (2008-2014) and is now an Associate Editor for Plant Physiology. She is a member of EMBO, AAAS, a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 2013 she was awarded an MBE for services to Plant Biotechnology.

Dr Walter C Willett, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Dr Walter Willett is Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He served as Chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard for 25 years.  His work has focused on development of methods, using both questionnaire and biochemical approaches, to study the effects of diet on the occurrence of major diseases. He has applied these methods to large cohort studies, including nearly 300,000 men and women, that provide the most detailed information on the long-term health consequences of diets. Dr. Willett has published over 1,900 articles, primarily on lifestyle risk factors for cardiometabolic disease and cancer, and has written the textbook Nutritional Epidemiology.

Professor Sir Ian Boyd, Professor of Biology, University of St Andrews

Ian Boyd is a Professor of Biology at the University of St Andrews and until 2019 was the Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government on food and environment. He is a marine and polar scientist by background but has spent most of his career studying system dynamics from the level of endocrine systems to whole ocean ecosystems.

Benjamin M. Theurer, Director and Head of the Mexico Equity Research Office, Barclays

Benjamin M. Theurer is a Director and Head of the Mexico Equity Research office. He covers multiple sectors across the Americas, including Americas Agribusiness, Latin America Consumer, and Latin America Multi-Industry. Prior to joining Barclays in 2011, Benjamin worked at DWS Investments, the Frankfurt-based asset management branch of Deutsche Bank, as a buy-side analyst and deputy fund manager for Latin American Equities. He holds a master's degree in International Economics (Mag.rer.soc.oec) from a joint program at the University of Innsbruck (Austria) and Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain).

Dr Muyiwa Akintoye, Head of R&D Quorn Foods

Dr Muyiwa Akintoye is married with a son and daughter and is trained as a Food Technologist. He is currently Head of Research and Development with Quorn Foods and has gained experience over the years in Food Research and Food Manufacture methods in areas as diverse as canning, breakfast cereals, brewing and dairy. Muyiwa obtained his PhD from the University of Leeds and has been with Quorn Foods since 1993. He has responsibility for establishing and driving forward R&D programs and activities that are business value enhancing whilst maintaining and establishing a solid scientific basis for these activities. These include the assessment of new ingredients with particular emphasis on identifying and implementing significant cost saving opportunities, evaluating and developing new innovative processes for the manufacture of meat free products – vegan and vegetarian – under the Quorn brand, working with suppliers to develop and improve the delivery of savoury flavour in Quorn products, and sensory and consumer research responsibilities. Muyiwa has written articles in peer-reviewed journals and holds a number of patents.

Professor Claire Domoney, Head of the Department of Metabolic Biology and Biological Chemistry, John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park

Professor Claire Domoney is Head of the Department of Metabolic Biology and Biological Chemistry at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK. She holds an honorary chair at the University of East Anglia and has been awarded the Royal Agricultural Society of England medal and MBE for her contributions to crop improvement. Her main research is on seed quality traits in pea, with a principal focus on understanding the genetic basis for protein accumulation and its relevance to nutrition. She uses metabolomic and genetic approaches to reveal links between biochemical pathways in developing seeds, generating germplasm which provides novel insights to legume seed traits. Major partnerships are crucial to her work, through leadership of the Defra-funded Pulse Crop Genetic Improvement Network (PCGIN) and participation in EU and LINK consortia-led projects, all involving wide-ranging collaborations with breeders and additional industries.

Professor Johnathan Napier, Flagship Leader, Rothamsted Research

Originally from Northern Ireland, Johnathan obtained his BSc (hons) in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Nottingham, followed by a PhD in plant biochemistry from King’s College London. He carried out post-doctoral research at the University of Cambridge, then taking up a position at Long Ashton Research Station in Bristol. His research group relocated to Rothamsted Research in 2003 where he is currently Flagship Leader. Johnathan is also an Affiliated Lecturer at the University of Cambridge and Visiting Professor at the University of Nottingham, who also awarded him a DSc in 2006. He has published over 170 peer-reviewed papers, and is the inventor on multiple patents relating to the biotechnology of lipid metabolism. Since 2014 he has been running the most comprehensive GM field trials in the UK, evaluating the performance of metabolically engineered oilseeds to accumulate omega-3 fish oils, as well as more recently carrying out the first field trials of gene-edits crops.

Jason Kakoyiannis, Corporate Development, Ginkgo Bioworks and Board Member, Motif Foodworks

Jason Kakoyiannis focuses on corporate development at Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston-based organism design company where engineers read and write DNA to design microbes made-to-order for clients across a range of industries, including nutrition, chemicals, medicine, and agriculture. At Ginkgo, Jason’s role is to catalyse the formation of new operating companies that use Ginkgo’s technology in different end markets. Motif Foodworks is one such company, which recently raised $120 million to produce a variety of animal proteins through fermentation. Prior to joining Ginkgo, Jason held strategic growth roles at Givaudan developing global products and brands with Unilever, Natura and others. He began his career as an M&A attorney at Shearman & Sterling. He is a board member at Motif and currently advises several biotech start-ups. Jason received his BA from Brown University, MA from Yale University, and JD from University of Southern California.

Haven Baker, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer, Pairwise

Haven Baker is a Co-founder and Chief Business Officer of Pairwise, a next generation agriculture company focused on using gene editing technology to address global food challenges. In his role, Baker is responsible for developing the company’s commercial strategy and using CRISPRs to bring new crop varieties to the market to make fruits and vegetables more convenient, affordable and sustainable. Prior to Pairwise, Baker was the General Manager and Senior Vice President of Plant Sciences at the JR Simplot Company, one of the largest privately held food and agribusiness companies in the US. Baker built the team and strategy for Simplot’s biotechnology potato and strawberry efforts and commercialized the Innate potato, one of the first biotech products to have both consumer and producer benefits.

Baker has significant experience at the intersection of technology and business. He served as a Senior scientist at the Barnett Institute at Northeastern University and later worked as an investment professional at Peter Thiel’s Clarium Capital before joining Simplot. Baker received a BS from Yale University, a PhD in chemistry from Northeastern University, and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. He grew up on a farm in Washington State.

Dr Joshua Flack, Senior Scientist, MosaMeat

Josh is a Senior Scientist and Team Leader at MosaMeat, a leading cultured meat company based in Maastricht, the Netherlands. Josh’s team is responsible for the identification, purification and optimisation of bovine muscle and fat cells for the production of cultured beef. Prior to his move to the continent, Josh completed his PhD at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, in the lab of Dr Mariann Bienz, working on cellular signalling pathways that are activated during colon cancer. A keen sailor and skier, Josh is acutely aware of the impact of the meat industry on the environment, and is working to reinvent meat in an environmentally sustainable way.

Ernesto Schmitt, Co-founder & Arch Crafter, The Craftory

Ernesto Schmitt is Co-founder at The Craftory, a $375 million investment house dedicated to backing cause-driven challenger brands in consumer goods. The first deal announced by The Craftory in 2019 was an $18 million investment in NotCo, a Chilean venture using machine learning to create plant alternatives for animal protein-based foods including (not)meat, (not)fish and (not)dairy. Ernesto is also a serial entrepreneur, having created half a dozen technology ventures over the past 20 years, with successful exits to Twitter, Intel and Coty, amongst others.

Dr Andreas Sewing, Head of Research and Development (Vegetable Seeds), BASF

A Cell and Molecular Biologist by training, Andreas studied Human Biology and completed his PhD at the Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany. He continued his work as a postdoctoral fellow at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London, UK where he worked to understand the impact of oncogenes on the cell cycle control in human cells and the role in human cancer. 

In 1997, Andreas started the journey of discovering human medicines in the area of pain and neurological disorders with Smithkline Beecham, UK, as Senior Investigator. In 2000 Andreas joined Pfizer where he held a number of senior management positions within the R&D organisation: Principle Scientist High Throughput Screening, Associate Director Lead Discovery Technologies and Director Primary Pharmacology. Andreas holds an MBA from the Open University, UK and is also a Lean/Six Sigma Black Belt.

Switching from red to green Biotechnology and Science as Global Head of R&D Support for Bayer Vegetables Seeds in 2011, Andreas is now the Head of Research and Development of the Vegetable Seeds unit and member of the Bayer Crop Science Research and Development leadership team. 

Helen Munday, Chief Scientific Officer, Food and Drink Federation

Helen Munday is the Food and Drink Federation’s Chief Scientific Officer. Helen is accountable for the diverse food safety and science policy briefs, but also has responsibility for sustainability and contributes to health and wellbeing policy.

Helen has a wealth of experience in the food and drink sector. Helen started her career with Mars Petcare where she spent 20 years in various roles including nutrition research, product development and innovation processes. Helen has also held the position of Director of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs for Coca-Cola and worked as Lead Technologist in AgriFood at InnovateUK.  

Helen is a Fellow of the Institute of Food Science and Technology and the Royal Society of Chemistry (becoming President of the former in 2020) and a Registered Nutritionist. With her qualifications in Agricultural and Meat Science, together with her vast business experience, Helen has a broad and deep knowledge across the entire AgriFood chain.  

Professor Chris Elliott, OBE, Institute for Global Food Security, Queen’s University Belfast

Chris is currently Professor of Food Safety and founder of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast. He served as Pro Vice Chancellor responsible for the Medical and Life Sciences Faculty between 2015 and 2018.  He has published more than 400 peer reviewed articles, many of them relating to the detection and control of agriculture, food and environmental related contaminants. His main research interests are in the development of innovative techniques to provide early warning of toxin threats across complex food supply systems. Protecting the integrity of the food supply chain from fraud is also a key research topic and Chris led the independent review of Britain’s food system following the 2013 horsemeat scandal. He currently coordinates a flagship Horizon2020 project involving 16 European and 17 Chinese partners on food safety and also coordinates an European Institute of Innovation and Technology flagship research project. 

Over the years, Chris has developed a high level network of collaborators across Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. He is a visiting Professor at the China Agriculture University in Beijing and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a recipient of a Winston Churchill Fellowship and an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Royal Society of Biology. Chris has received numerous prizes and awards for his work. In 2017, he was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Theophilus Redwood Prize and was also awarded an OBE by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. 

Professor Alan Raybould, Professor of Innovation in the Life Sciences, University of Edinburgh

Alan joined the University of Edinburgh in 2019 as Professor of Innovation in the Life Sciences. His research focuses on the use of science to inform decision-making, particularly improving the efficiency and effectiveness of regulation of products of new technology in agriculture and food production.

Following a PhD in genetics at the University of Birmingham, Alan became a Principal Scientific Officer at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. He joined Syngenta at Jealott’s Hill in the UK in 2001. He led preparation of environmental risk assessments as part of worldwide regulatory submissions for Syngenta’s genetically modified crop products. Alan moved to Syngenta’s headquarters in Basel, Switzerland in 2014. He was a Senior Science and Technology Fellow working on risk assessment and societal acceptance of agricultural products of new technology, including insect-control sprays based on RNA interference and crops bred using gene editing.