Dr. Lluís Serra Majem

Director 

Professor Dr. Lluís Serra-Majem (Barcelona, Spain 1959) is a medical doctor with a Ph.D. specialising in Preventive Medicine and Public Health Nutrition. In 1988, he became Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Barcelona School of Medicine. During this time, he founded and has been the Director since 1990 of the Community Nutrition Research Centre which is located at the University of Barcelona Science Park. In 1995 he became Full Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where he also holds the UNESCO Chair for Research, Planning and Development of Local Health and Food Systems, and is the Director of the Nutrition Research Group, Director of the International Chair for Advanced Studies on Hydration as well as Director of the Research Institute in Biomedical and Health Sciences (IUIBS).

In addition, he is Coordinator of the Las Palmas Nutrition Group that belongs to the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red-Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBEROBN) (Biomedical Research Network Center- Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition) of the Carlos III Health Institute that is linked to the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. He also serves as Coordinator of the Las Palmas Research Node for the PREDIMED (Prevention with Diet Mediterranean) and the current PREDIMED PLUS studies.

He is President and founder of the Spanish Academy of Nutrition and Food Sciences, (AEN), the Nutrition Research Foundation (FIN), the NGO Nutrition without Borders, as well as the International Foundation of Mediterranean Diet (IFMeD). He founded and also served as President of the Mediterranean Diet Foundation (from 1996 to 2012) where he led the candidacy of the Mediterranean Diet to be considered as Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO, a landmark achievement that took place in 2010. He is also a visiting professor at numerous European and Latin American Universities.

Author of more than 800 scientific publications, he has published 70 books and 485 peer reviewed scientific papers with an impact factor over 2200 and an H-index of 74. In the last 25 years he has participated and directed numerous European and national projects. He has directed the National Nutrition Surveys of the Catalan population (1992-93 & 2002-03), the Nutrition Survey of the Canary Islands (1997-98), the ENKID Study on the Evaluation of Feeding Habits and Nutritional Status in Spanish Children and Youth (1998-2000), the Andorra Nutrition Surveys (2004-05 & 2017-18) and the “Total Diet Study” Project for the Community of Valencia (2003-04). He has served on the Steering Committee of the following European Union Projects, among others: CREDITS4HEALTH: Credits based, people-centric approach for the adoption of healthy life-styles and balanced Mediterranean diet in the frame of social participation for health promotion; PLANTLIBRA: PLANT food supplements: Levels of Intake, Benefit and Risk Assessment; EURRECA: EURopean RECommendations Aligned Harmonising nutrient recommendations across Europe with special focus on vulnerable groups and consumer understanding; BENERIS: Benefit-Risk assessment for food: an iterative value-of-information approach; PIPS: Personalised Information Platform for Life and Health Services, EXPOCHI: Individual food consumption data and four exposure assessment Studies for children in Europe: food colours, selenium, chromium and lead; and ENHR II: European Nutrition Health Report II.

He participates in the following projects, which comprise the European territorial Co-operation Program INTERREG V-A Spain-Portugal MAC (Madeira, Azores and Canary Islands) funded by the European Union: PERVEMAC II: Sustainable agriculture and food security in Macaronesia, as Director of the Cape Verde Nutrition Survey ENCAVE; MACbioIDi: Promoting the cohesion of the Macaronesian RUPs through a common ICT platform for biomedical R & D & I; and MACBIOBLUE: Demonstration and technology transfer project to help companies develop new products and processes in the field of Macaronesian Blue Biotechnology.

He has directed 44 doctoral theses and has organized several international congresses of which the I and III World Congress of Public Health Nutrition stand out. Throughout his career he has received several awards, the most recent being the Canary Islands Nombramiento de Hijo Adoptivo de Canarias (2018) (Outstanding Citzenship Distinction) and the Dr. Carles Martí Henneberg 2017 Scientific Career Award (DANONE Institute).

His scientific and academic merit places him as one of the scientists having the highest productivity and external renown in the Canary Islands and among the 100 most cited in Spain (1% worldwide). He has a leading role both nationally and internationally in the field of nutrition and public health, the Mediterranean diet, the prevention of childhood obesity, as well as in the areas of food sustainability and hydration.