China Studies Centre, The University of Sydney
Date: Thursday 17 September 2020
Time: 10:30-11:30 am AEST
Registration via Eventbrite is essential
In 2016, the Chinese Government launched its ‘Healthy China’ Plan, introducing concrete measures to reform the food industry and diets. One of the key recommendations of the 2018 Tsinghua-Lancet report on Healthy Cities in China is to promote a shift from treatment to prevention of non-communicable diseases. Obesity, for example, is a major health concern, with one in five children in China considered overweight or obese.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, 80% of Chinese consumers indicate they will pay more attention to their dietary habits. Facilitated by Tim Regan, COO, The George Institute for Global Health, this panel of experts, including Professor Luigi Fontana from The University of Sydney, Dr Roman Bucknow from CSIRO, Peggy Liu from JUCCCE and Professor Xuebin Yin from Suzhou SETEK Co., Ltd will provide insights on the future of food and nutrition in Australia and China, including the opportunities and challenges this presents for industry and research in a post-pandemic world.
This event is proudly supported by The University of Sydney’s Centre in China and assisted by the Suzhou Association for Science and Technology.
About the speakers
Professor Luigi Fontana is an internationally recognised physician scientist and one of the world’s leaders in the field of nutrition and healthy longevity in humans. His pioneering clinical studies on the effects of dietary restriction have opened a new area of nutrition-related research that holds tremendous promise for the prevention of age-related chronic diseases. His research has delivered a paradigm shift in the understanding of how dietary restriction, by slowing the accumulation of metabolic and molecular damage, deeply influences human aging biology and the initiation, progression and prognosis of many clinical conditions, ranging from obesity to type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Dr. Roman Buckow holds a PhD in Food Process Engineering from the Berlin University of Technology. He is the Leader of CSIRO’s Food Transformation Group, which focuses on the development of novel processing platform technologies and services that deliver sustainable gains in productivity and efficiency across the food value-chain. Roman is specialised in engineering and food safety aspects of high pressure, pulsed electric field and extrusion processing of foods. He has actively carry-out research work and published over 90 articles and book chapters in these areas. Roman is currently the president of the International Association for Engineering and Food and vice-president of the Australian Food Engineering Association.
Peggy Liu, Chairperson of JUCCCE, has been at the heart of the greening of China since 2007, dedicating her life to personal and planetary health. Peggy keynotes around the world on lessons from how China is tackling the world’s toughest challenges: pollution, urbanization, epidemics, drought, obesity and diabetes. As founder of Food Heroes curriculum, she regularly promotes the link between nutritional health and planetary health in documentaries, classrooms, and international forums. Food Heroes is aimed at young children and shows how to grow, prepare, share, and dispose of food with love. She was awarded the “Hillary Step” – a “Nobel” of climate change action, and is a TIME Hero of the Environment, as well as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Previously, she was a venture capitalist and founded one of the earliest ecommerce companies in Silicon Valley.
Prof. Xuebin Yin is the Director of Advanced Lab for Functional Agriculture, Suzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Science and Technology China (USTC). He is also Dean of Nanjing Institute for Functional Agriculture Science and Technology (iFAST), Chairman of Suzhou SETEK Co., Ltd, and Director of the National Innovation Center for Functional Rice and Coarse Cereals. He serviced as Vice-chairman of the International Society for Selenium Research. Prof Yin started his research on selenium biogeochemistry, phytoremediation and biofortification at USTC in 1998, and continued at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005.His current research is related to the biofortification of trace/macro elements (such as selenium, zinc, calcium, iron and iodine), with an emphasis on their biological transformation, health issues and utilisation in agriculture and functional foods.
Chair : Tim Regan is the current COO of The George Institute for Global Health. He has extensive experience in the health, property and services industries, including as former COO of top 50 ASX-listed Mirvac Group, CEO of TJS Services, Commercial Manager for the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Senior Manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Tim is currently a Director (and former President) of Financial Executives Institute of Australia and a former Director of Thomas & Coffey and Vice-Chair of the Australian Theatre for Young People. He holds a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Sydney and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, the Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Australian Property Institute.