Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow 

Ann Prentice is an Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow of the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge. She is the former Director of the MRC Elsie Widdowson Laboratory (previously MRC Human Nutrition Research), Cambridge, and was Programme Leader of the MRC Nutrition and Bone Health Research Group, Cambridge, and Head of the Calcium, Vitamin D and Bone Health research team at MRC Unit The Gambia.

Ann is a research scientist with a strong commitment to the translation of scientific evidence into policy and practice. She was Chair of the UK Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition 2010-20 and holds, or has held, other official positions and memberships of Government Committees, Royal Colleges and International Agencies; Research Councils and Universities; Learned Societies and Research Charities.

Her research is focused on lifecourse nutritional requirements for population health, with an emphasis on calcium and vitamin D, and encompasses the nutritional problems of both affluent and resource-limited societies. She has been involved in projects studying pregnant and lactating women, children, adolescents and older persons in the UK, The Gambia, Uganda, Malawi, Kenya, China, Bangladesh, India and South Africa. She has published >350 peer-reviewed articles, plus contributions to book chapters and government reports, the latter most notably in relation to her close involvement with the National Diet and Nutrition Survey since 1992.

In addition to the University of Cambridge, Ann has honorary and visiting appointments at the MRC Unit The Gambia at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, and Shenyang Medical College in China, and she was the Honorary Professor of Global Nutrition and Health at the University of Cambridge from 2017-19. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of the University of Surrey in 2014 and was appointed OBE in 2006 and CBE in 2024.

Research Interests

• Optimal nutritional status and nutritional vulnerability in relation to health
• Nutritional problems of the developing world and global health
• Dietary requirements for human growth, pregnancy and lactation, and old age
• Nutritional aspects of bone health, peak bone mass, rickets and osteoporosis
• Calcium and vitamin D requirements across the life span and across populations
• Human lactational physiology and breast-milk composition
• Human calcium, vitamin D and bone physiology, metabolism and genetics
• Population nutritional recommendations and surveillance
• Functional and biochemical markers of micronutrient status

Employment history

• 2019-2020 Programme Leader, MRC Nutrition and Bone Health Research Group, Cambridge
• 2018-2020 Group Leader, Calcium, Vitamin D and Bone Health Group, MRC Unit, The Gambia
• 1998-2018 Director, MRC Human Nutrition Research/Elsie Widdowson Laboratory, Cambridge
• 1998-2018 Programme Leader of MRC Nutrition and Bone Health Group, MRC HNR/EWL
• 1998-2018 Chief Scientist National Diet and Nutrition Surveys, MRC HNR/EWL
• 1991-1998 Head of Micronutrient Research, MRC Dunn Nutrition Unit, Cambridge
• 1984-1991 Scientist, MRC Dunn Nutrition Unit, Cambridge
• 1978-1983 Scientist, MRC Dunn Nutrition Group, Keneba, The Gambia

Honorary appointments

• 2021- Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow, MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge
• 2019- Visiting worker, MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge
• 2019- Visiting worker, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge
• 2018- Visiting Senior Research Fellow, MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM
• 2013- Honorary Professor, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
• 1995- Honorary Professor, Shenyang Medical College, PR China
• 2017-2019 Honorary Professor of Global Nutrition and Health, University of Cambridge
• 2016-2018 Visiting Professor of Nutritional Science, University of Southampton
• 2003-2007 Visiting Professor, King’s College, University of London
• 1990-1993 Honorary Research Fellow, Hannah Research Institute, Ayr

Honours, Awards and Prizes

• 2024 Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), for services to British and global public health nutrition
• 2020 Widdowson Award of The Nutrition Society
• 2018 Macy-György Award of the International Society of Research into Human Milk and Lactation
• 2017 Honorary Fellow of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences
• 2016 Honorary Fellow of The Nutrition Society
• 2015 Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
• 2014 Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University of Surrey
• 2012 Honorary Fellow of the Association for Nutrition
• 2012 Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (elected)
• 2011 Nutrition Society Gold Medal
• 2011 British Nutrition Foundation Prize
• 2011 Fellow of the Association for Nutrition (elected)
• 2010 Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (elected)
• 2006 Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), for services to nutrition
• 2004 Edna and Robert Langholz Award for International Nutrition, USA
• 1998 Laureat de le Prix Scientifique, Institut Candia, France
• 1975 Mayneord Prize for Medical Physics, Surrey University
• 1971 Turbott Prize for Organic Chemistry, Oxford University

Education and Qualifications

• 1978 PhD in Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge
• 1977 MA Hons, University of Oxford
• 1975 MSc (Distinction) in Medical Physics, University of Surrey
• 1974 BA Hons (First Class) in Chemistry, University of Oxford