The British Nutrition Foundation Annual Lecture is held at the British Nutrition Foundation Annual Conference, usually in November, with an invited audience and the opportunity to watch the Lecture live online for registered delegates.
It is usually delivered by a previous winner of the British Nutrition Foundation Prize.
The 2025 Annual Lecture was delivered by Professor Glenn Gibson, Professor of Food Microbiology at the University of Reading.
Glenn Gibson is Professor of Food Microbiology at the University of Reading. Professor Gibson received his PhD from University of Dundee and then worked as a research scientist in MRC Dunn Clinical Nutrition Centre, Cambridge, later becoming the Head of the Microbiology Department at the BBSRC Institute of Food Research.
Professor Gibson was co-instigator of the prebiotic concept for gut microbiota modulation and the paper which originally coined the term prebiotic (and synbiotic) became the most highly cited publication ever on functional foods. Professor Gibson was a co-founder and former President for the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP). In 2019, he became an advisor for the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the gut microbiome, which aims to increase knowledge among parliamentarians on the potential benefits of the gut microbiota and its modulation to improve heath.
Glenn has published 8 books, 515 research papers, >400 abstracts, with >56,000 career citations (h factor = 104) and has co-supervised 80 PhD students, 44 postdoctoral researchers, 142 research contracts and given >1000 conference lectures. He is visiting professor at 2 other UK universities and also holds other academic positions overseas.
He currently researches acute and chronic gut diseases, and how interventions can be influential. This involves initial testing in ‘gut models’ before moving to human intervention studies. His research is dominated by gut microbiome interactions and dietary intervention.
Professor Gibson was at the forefront of developing early thinking on pre- and probiotics, and has continued to lead the field of human gut bacteriology. He is widely regarded as the UK's leading expert in this field where interest has grown enormously, and the science is increasingly important. His work on dietary interventions, the gut microbiome and health outcomes including autism, obesity and IBS have pushed forward this emerging area.
Past Annual Lectures
- 2024 Professor Sir Michael Marmot, Social Justice and Health Equity
- 2023 Professor Julie Lovegrove, Diet and Cardiovascular Health 'One for all and All for one'
- 2022 Dr Alison Tedstone, Tackling Inequalities in Diet: a 20-year perspective
- 2021 Professor Gary Frost, From food to molecules and back again
- 2020 Professor Hilary Powers, Riboflavin and friends: remarkably versatile vitamins
- 2019 Professor Sue Lanham-New, From Acids to Alkalis; Sunshine to Shadows – Reflections of a Journey in Nutritional Sciences
- 2018 Professor Ian Macdonald, Nutritional Science: Diet, Lifestyle and Health
- 2017 Professor Susan Jebb, Diet and Cardiovascular Health
- 2016 Professor Philip Calder, Omega-3: The good oil
- 2015 Professor Keith Frayn, Living with lipids: reflections of a fat physiologist
- 2014 Professor Ricardo Uauy, Reflections on Professor David Barker's Changing the Paradigm: Our health is shaped before conception and by early life events
- 2013 Professor Sean Strain, Eating fish for two
- 2012 Dr Ann Prentice, Standing on the shoulders of giants: understanding calcium and vitamin D requirements
- 2011 Professor Jeya Henry, How much food does man require: new insights
- 2010 Professor John Blundell, Interactions between physical activity and appetite control: can we reduce the energy gap?
- 2009 Professor Tom Sanders, The role of fat in the diet - quantity, quality and sustainability
- 2008 Professor J Cummings, Probiotics: better health from "good" bacteria?
- 2007 Professor K Khaw, Diet and Health: What Can We Learn From Population Studies?
- 2006 Professor S Blair, Physical Inactivity: A Major Public Health Problem
- 2005 Professor T Kirkwood, Nutrition for a Longer Life
- 2004 Professor S Bingham, What do people eat? Nutritional insights from molecular epidemiology
- 2003 Professor JC Mathers, Nutrition and epigenetics - how the genome learns from its experience
- 2002 Professor CM Williams, Chips with Everything? Nutritional genomics and the application of diet in disease prevention
- 2001 Professor M Gibney, On the Right to Eat Wrongly
- 2000 Professor A Prentice, The Fires of Life: the struggles of an ancient metabolism in a modern world
- 1999 Professor AA Jackson, All that glitters -Today’s challenges facing nutritional science
- 1998 Professor RS Pickard, The Food of the Gods - honey
- 1997 Professor RB Flavell, Challenges for Tomorrow’s Food from Today’s Science
- 1996 Professor Dame B Clayton, Nutrition Tasks: Achievements and Challenges for the Future
- 1995 Dr A Ganguly, Nutrition: From Molecules to Well-being
- 1994 Dr G Pascal, Food and Nutrition in a European Context
- 1993 Dr K Calman, The Health of the Nation: Nutritional Implications
- 1992 Sir F Riley, Beyond Two Ears of Corn
- 1991 Professor J Durant, Apple a Day? Public Understanding of Advice on Healthy Eating
- 1990 Professor J Waterlow, Malnourished Children: Problems and Controversies
- 1989 Professor N Kurti, Pleasures and Problems of Eating
- 1988 Professor JVGA Durnin, Nutritional Lessons from the Developing World
- 1987 Professor JRA Mitchell, Preventing Coronary Disease: The Myths and Realities
- 1986 Sir K Blaxter, Future Hunger?
- 1985 Miss J Marr, One Man and his Diet
- 1984 Professor I Macdonald, Nutrition in Balance: Fact and Fantasy
- 1983 Professor H Munro, Research on Nutrition and Ageing: The Challenge
- 1982 Dr E Widdowson, Age, Sex and Nutrition
- 1981 Professor Sir John Butterfield, A Policy for Clinical Nutrition
- 1980 Sir David Orr, Bridging the Nutrition Gap: The Role of the Food Processor
- 1979 Professor FM Clydesdale, Nutritional Fantasy
- 1978 Dr JS Garrow, Obesity: Is the Battle Worthwhile?
- 1976 Sir David Cuthbertson, Injury, Operation and Wound Healing: their Nutritional Implications
- 1975 Professor Sir Frank Young, The Nutrition of a Biochemist
- 1974 Dame H Chick, Studies of Rickets in Vienna 1919-1922
- 1973 Dr E Kodicek, The Story of Vitamin D: from Vitamin to Hormone
- 1972 Professor Sir Rudolf Peters, The Neglect of Nutrition and its Consequences
- 1971 Professor RA McCance, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
