Posted 20 February 2013
UCD Professor appointed Chairman of Food Safety Authority of Ireland
Michael Gibney, UCD Professor of Food and Health, has been appointed as the new Chairman of The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI).
Professor Gibney, Director of the UCD Institute of Food and Health, has a long and distinguished career as a world-leading expert in food science and nutrition.
“[Professor Gibney] will be a tremendous asset to our Board’s cumulative deliberations,” said Professor Alan Reilly, Chief Executive, FSAI.
“His appointment reaffirms our science-based ethos which underpins all the decisions, policies and actions of our organisation.”
“He has an impeccable global reputation for research on food and nutrition and has served on a number of high-level advisory committees in this area, both nationally and at EU level,” he added.
Originally a graduate of University College Dublin, with a Masters in Agricultural Chemistry, Professor Gibney completed a PhD in Sydney University. During his career, he has held the position of Professor of Nutrition and subsequently Dean of Research with Trinity College Dublin. After 23 years with Trinity College Dublin he took up the post of Director of the UCD Institute of Food and Health in 2006.
Professor Gibney previously served as a Board member of the FSAI from 1999 to 2009; he has served on several EU and UN committees on nutrition and health including the EU Scientific Committee for Food and the EU Scientific Steering Committee, where he chaired its BSE Working Group.
In 2010, he was appointed to the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Joint Programme Initiative on Food and Health Research. He is former President of the Nutrition Society and has published in excess of 250 peer reviewed scientific papers in Public Health Nutrition and Molecular Nutrition. He is the principal investigator on several national and EU projects.
At the time of the announcement of the new Chairman, the FSAI also welcomed the appointment of Raymond O’Rourke, a qualified barrister and a food regulatory and consumer affairs lawyer and the reappointment of Professor Charles Daly, Emeritus Professor of Food Science and Technology at University College Cork to its Board.(Produced by UCD University Relations)
