Prof Mark Lawrence

Awards

2019 Visiting Professor, Qingdao University

2019 Visiting Research Fellow, Yunnan Agricultural University

2017 Fellow of the Public Health Association of Australia

2014 British Medical Association Book Awards, ‘Food fortification: The evidence, ethics, and politics of adding nutrients to food’, ‘highly commended’ in the ‘Health and Social Care’ category

2014  Adjunct Professor, Curtin University 

2014 Honorary Fellow, Centre for Food Policy, City University London

2012 Co-presenter, Best research report award, World Nutrition2012, Rio, Brazil

2009 Victorian Healthcare Awards: Premier’s Excellence Award (‘Tackling chronic disease and improving public health’ category).  WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention: Highly Commended.

1997  NHMRC, Public Health and Research Development Committee Scholarship (PhD candidature: 1997 - 2000)

1996  Invited Chair, Working Party: Health and Nutrition Claims, Codex Committee on Food Labelling, Ottawa

1995  National Food Authority Development Award 1995 – 1996 (work placements at the US Food and Drug Administration and UK Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food)

1991  Course Distinction (M.Sc, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)

1990 VicHealth Inaugural Public Health Fellowship (1990-1993)

 

Committee representation

• External advisor to the World Health Organization (Dietary patterns for health);

• External advisor to the Food and Agriculture Organization (Sustainable healthy diets);
• Member of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences Task Force on Sustainable Diets;
• Chair of the Advisory Board for Cochrane Nutrition;
• Board member at Food Standards Australia New Zealand;
• Member of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council’s Synthesis and Translation of Research Evidence committee;
• Team leader, the Australian Research Council project, ‘Reforming evidence synthesis and translation for food and nutrition policy’; and
• Former member of Australian National Health and Medical Research Council’s Dietary Guidelines Working Committee.

Teaching

Unit Chair HSN706: Food policy and public health 

Mark's research interests focus on healthy and sustainable food systems and food and nutrition policy. He and his colleagues have secured over $7 million in category 1 research grants to investigate the science and politics of evidence use in nutrition policy-making, particularly in relation to healthy and sustainable food systems, Dietary guidelines, Nutrient Reference Values, food regulation and obesity prevention.

He is leading a transdisciplinary research team, funded by an ARC Discovery project grant 'Reforming evidence synthesis and translation for food and nutrition policy'.

He is co-leading (with Professor Sarah McNaughton) a large World Health Organization project involving the preparation of a series of systematic reviews investigating the relationships between dietary patterns and 14 health outcomes. 

• World Public Health Nutrition Association (previous Secretary General)
• Public Health Association of Australia (previous Convenor of Food and Nutrition Special Interest Group)
• Nutrition Society of Australia
• Dietitians Association of Australia
• Australian Public Health Nutrition Academic Collaboration

Public health nutrition

Food and nutrition Policy

Healthy and sustainable food systems

Critical analysis of policy-making

Dietary patterns

Food regulation

Dietary guidelines

Nutrient reference values

Ultra-processed foods

Food security

Food literacy

Advocacy

Unit Chair HSN706 Food Policy and Public Health

Currently supervises 1 Honours, 1 Masters and 5 PhD students

Public health nutrition

Food policy

Healthy and sustainable food systems

Dietary guidelines

Nutrient reference values

Evidence-informed policy

Dietary patterns

Critical policy analysis

Food regulation

Food labelling

Food fortification

Obesity prevention

Food security

Mark is Professor of Public Health Nutrition at the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University. He has 35 years' experience working as a practitioner and academic in food and nutrition policy at local, state, national and international levels. Mark's research interests focus on healthy and sustainable food systems, dietary guidelines, ultra-processed foods, Nutrient Reference Values and food regulation. He has published widely on the topics of healthy and sustainable diets and healthy and sustainable foods systems. His latest research book is, Mark Lawrence and Sharon Friel (eds). (2020) 'Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems', Routledge. He is External advisor to the World Health Organization (Dietary patterns for health); External advisor to the Food and Agriculture Organization (Sustainable healthy diets); Member of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences Task Force on Sustainable Diets; Chair of the Advisory Board for Cochrane Nutrition; Board member at Food Standards Australia New Zealand; Member of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council's Synthesis and Translation of Research Evidence committee; Team leader, the Australian Research Council project, 'Reforming evidence synthesis and translation for food and nutrition policy'; and Former member of Australian National Health and Medical Research Council's Dietary Guidelines Working Committee..

• Environment and environmental issues
• Environmental sustainability
• Ethics

Invited keynote: Lawrence M. “New approaches to evidence synthesis and translation for food and nutrition policy”, World Public Health Nutrition Congress 2020, 31 March to Friday 3 April 2020, Brisbane.

Invited keynote: Lawrence M. “The science and politics of synthesising and translating evidence into nutrition policy”, Nutrition Society of Australia Annual General meeting, ‘Nutrition Science: The nexus between health policy and practice’, 27-30 November 2018, Canberra.

Invited keynote: Lawrence M. Regulating to protect public health and environmental sustainability. PHAA Food Futures conference, 20-21 November 2018, Brisbane

Lawrence M, Pollard C, Lee A, Woods J, Stanton R, Friel S, Vidgen H. A critical policy analysis of the Australian Healthy Food Partnership, 15th World Congress on public health, 3 – 7 April 2017, Melbourne

Invited keynote speaker, ‘Successful obesity prevention requires tackling competing border views’, Annual conference, Home Economics Institute of Australia 11-13 January 2017, Melbourne.

Invited plenary speaker, Lawrence M, ‘Rethinking the translation of nutrition evidence into public health practice’, Nutrition Society of Australia 40th Annual Scientific Meeting, 29/11/16 – 2/12/16, Melbourne

Lawrence M, Pollard C. ‘Opportunities and challenges in positioning food regulatory systems to protect and promote public health’. Food Governance, Sydney Law School, University of Sydney 2-3 November 2016

Lawrence M, Pollard C. Reforming food regulatory systems to protect and promote public health nutrition, World Nutrition, 30/8/16 – 2/9/16, Cape Town 

Lawrence M, Kristjansson E. Systematic Review, Process Evaluation And Knowledge Translation Of Community Interventions To Tackle A ‘Wicked Problem’: Food Insecurity. World Nutrition, 30/8/16 – 2/9/16, Cape Town

Lawrence M (Coordinator and speaker), The science and politics of evidence use in food policy-making, C-PAN Nutrition Symposium ‘Current and future priorities for food policy: International insights’, Melbourne, 22/2/16

Invited chair and speaker, ‘National forum: Creating a healthy and sustainable food system for Australia’, Regulatory Institutions Network and the Research School of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, 24 September 2015, Canberra

Invited speaker, ‘Moving forward – reforming evidence use in nutrition’, Bias in Research Node Meeting: Challenges to using the best evidence for nutrition policy, University of Sydney, 20 November 2015, Sydney

Speaker, ‘Improving nutrition evidence for nutrition policy: the Cochrane Collaboration commitment’, 4th Annual NHMRC Symposium on Research Translation, 27-28 October 2015, Sydney

Invited speaker, ‘Formulating policy activities to promote healthy and sustainable diets’, International Health Policy Program Office, Ministry of Public Health, 19 October 2015, Bangkok

Invited speaker (Plenary session), ‘Reforming evidence-informed practice in public health nutrition policy and practice’, 23rd Annual Cochrane Colloquium 2015, 1 - 6 October 2015, Vienna

Invited speaker and symposium chair (A Symposium on Nutrition and Evidence for Policy and Practice), ‘Revisiting concepts for evidence use for nutrition policy’, 23rd Annual Cochrane Colloquium 2015, 1 - 6 October 2015, Vienna

Invited speaker, Rethinking evidence use for food and nutrition policy, Food Research Collaboration, City University, 30 September 2015, London

Speaker, ‘An evidence-informed policy plan for food system change to promote healthy and sustainable diets’, Population Health Congress 2015, 6-9 September, 2015, Hobart

Regular media appearances in print, TV and radio 

Head of the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition's Food Policy Unit

He leads a transdisciplinary research team, funded by an ARC Discovery project grant 'Reforming evidence synthesis and translation for food and nutrition policy'.

Awards

2019 Visiting Professor, Qingdao University

2019 Visiting Research Fellow, Yunnan Agricultural University

2017 Fellow of the Public Health Association of Australia

2014 British Medical Association Book Awards, ‘Food fortification: The evidence, ethics, and politics of adding nutrients to food’, ‘highly commended’ in the ‘Health and Social Care’ category

2014  Adjunct Professor, Curtin University 

2014 Honorary Fellow, Centre for Food Policy, City University London

2012 Co-presenter, Best research report award, World Nutrition2012, Rio, Brazil

2009 Victorian Healthcare Awards: Premier’s Excellence Award (‘Tackling chronic disease and improving public health’ category).  WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention: Highly Commended.

1997  NHMRC, Public Health and Research Development Committee Scholarship (PhD candidature: 1997 - 2000)

1996  Invited Chair, Working Party: Health and Nutrition Claims, Codex Committee on Food Labelling, Ottawa

1995  National Food Authority Development Award 1995 – 1996 (work placements at the US Food and Drug Administration and UK Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food)

1991  Course Distinction (M.Sc, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)

1990 VicHealth Inaugural Public Health Fellowship (1990-1993)

Committee Representation

• External advisor to the World Health Organization (Dietary patterns for health);

• External advisor to the Food and Agriculture Organization (Sustainable healthy diets);

• Member of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences Task Force on Sustainable Diets;

• Chair of the Advisory Board for Cochrane Nutrition;

• Board member at Food Standards Australia New Zealand;

• Member of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council’s Synthesis and Translation of Research Evidence committee;

• Team leader, the Australian Research Council project, ‘Reforming evidence synthesis and translation for food and nutrition policy’; and

• Former member of Australian National Health and Medical Research Council’s Dietary Guidelines Working Committee.

• Member of Advisory Group, DIET@NET (DIETary Assessment Tool NETwork) project, University of Leeds (aims to develop the Nutritools.org website that will host expert-rated, online dietary assessment tools as well as guidance on best practice for collection and analysis of dietary data) (2015 – )

• Member of Advisory Committee, review of the Nutrient Reference Values, Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing and New Zealand Ministry of Health (2013 – 15).

• Member, expert roster EU project Prevention of Obesity in Europe – Consortium for the prevention    of obesity through effective nutrition and physical activity actions (EURO-PREVOB), (2008 – 2010).

• Member, the Nutrition Society Australia Registration Committee (2007 - 2015).

• Member, Food Safety Council, Health Department Victoria (2007 – 2010).

• Member, Australian Public Health Nutrition Academic Collaboration (2002 – current).

Codex Alimentarius Commission involvement

• Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses, Bonn, 1995 – 1997 (led the Australian delegation)

• Codex Committee on Food Export and Import Inspection and Certification Systems, Canberra, 1995

• Codex Committee on Food Labelling, Ottawa, 1996 (member of the Australian delegation)