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MS(Calif) BSc PhD (London) FRSNZ

Ros GibsonEmail rosalind.gibson@otago.ac.nz

Professor Gibson conducts research in low income countries on the assessment and functional health outcomes of micronutrient deficiencies in “at risk' population groups. She is particularly interested in food-based strategies for combating micronutrient malnutrition.

Professor Rosalind Gibson is a Emerita Professor in the Department of Human Nutrition. She has an MS PH (Nutrition) from the School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, USA and a PhD in Nutrition from the University of London, UK.

Rosalind has had a life-long interest in international nutrition, initially working in the Ethio-Swedish Children's Nutrition Unit in Ethiopia, and subsequently in collaborative research studies on micronutrients in Papua New Guinea, Guatemala, Ghana, Malawi, Zambia, and Ethiopia as well as Thailand, Mongolia and more recently Cambodia, NE Brazil and Indonesia. Before joining the University of Otago, she was a faculty member in the Division of Applied Nutrition, University of Guelph.

Professor Gibson's current research is based around the aetiology and functional health consequences of iron and zinc deficiency in high risk population groups in low income countries; and food-based strategies to enhance the content and bioavailability of micronutrients in plant-based diets in low income countries and their impact on growth and development.

Professor Gibson is an emerita member of the International Zinc Nutrition Collaborative Group (IZiNCG), of which she was a member from 2000-2018, a fellow of the American Society of Nutrition, and a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. She was Co-Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Nutrition in the Western Pacific Region in the department until 2017. She is a recipient of the McHenry Award by the Canadian Society of Nutritional Sciences, the Rank Prize from the British Nutrition Society, the Lifetime Achievements in Global Nutrition Research Award by the American Society for Nutrition, and the McCollum Award by the American Society for Nutrition. In 2020 she was awarded a DSc, honoris causa by the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. She is the author of a standard reference text, Principles of Nutritional Assessment, and is currently engaged with colleagues in 3rd revision of Principles of Nutritional Assessment, chapters of which are freely available on-line.

Rosalind taught in a number of the undergraduate and graduate papers, mostly in the areas of dietary and laboratory assessment, development of screening tools for assessing nutritional status, and assessment of micronutrient status.

She has also taught Nutritional Assessment short courses to:
MSc and PhD students in Applied Nutrition from Hawassa and Jimma Universities in Ethiopia; MSc and PhD students at the Asian Ministers of Education Tropical Medicine and Public Health ((SEAMEO TR0PMED), University of Indonesia, Jakarta and at Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Padjadjaran, Bandung, Indonesia; and courses in Dietary Assessment hosted by Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University, Thailand and Institute of Home Economics, Delhi University, India.

Graduates

PhD

Ireti Balogun. Association between farm diversity and dietary diversity in four geopolitical zones in Nigeria. 2021.

Aly Diana. Adequacy of micronutrient intakes and status of breastfed Indonesian infants fed traditional complementary foods in Sumedang district, West Java: a longitudinal study. 2017.

Rebecca Lander. Nutritional status of disadvantaged preschool children attending daycares in Salvador, Northeast Brazil: a cross-sectional study. 2012.

Susan Jack. Effect of micronutrient sprinkles on reducing anaemia: a cluster randomized effectiveness trial in Cambodia. 2012.

Ewa Szymlek-Gay. Optimising iron status in toddlers - putting theory into practice. 2008.

Masters of Science

Deborah McIntosh. Nutritional status in young children aged 12-23 months living in New Delhi, India. 2018.

Sarah Beaumont. Enhancing the energy and nutrient supply for preschoolers in Emali, South-Eastern Kenya. 2015

Michelle Gibbs. Manufactured complementary foods for young child feeding in Asia: their micronutrient adequacy and improvement. 2010.

Nick Prosser. Analysis of zinc component of the iron status in Dunedin women with mild iron deficiency. 2010.

Master of Dietetics

Megan Chang. Phytate and zinc intakes of New Zealand toddlers (individual foods).

Catherine Luey. Phytate and zinc intakes of New Zealand toddlers (mixed dishes).

Nicola Hartley. A web-based dietary assessment method for exploring zinc bioavailability.

Publications

Diana, A., Haszard, J. J., Irda Sari, S. Y., Rahmannia, S., Fathonah, A., Sofiah, W. N., … Harper, M., … Houghton, L., & Gibson, R. (2021). Determination of modifiable risk factors for length-for-age z-scores among resource-poor Indonesian infants. PLoS ONE, 16(2), e0247247. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247247

Leong, C., Gibson, R. S., Diana, A., Haszard, J. J., Rahmannia, S., Ansari, M. B., … Houghton, L. A. (2021). Differences in micronutrient intakes of exclusive and partially breastfed Indonesian infants from resource-poor households are not accompanied by differences in micronutrient status, morbidity, or growth. Journal of Nutrition, 151, 705-715. doi: 10.1093/jn/nxaa381

Gibson, R. S., Rahmannia, S., Diana, A., Leong, C., Haszard, J. J., Hampel, D., Reid, M., … Houghton, L. A. (2020). Association of maternal diet, micronutrient status, and milk volume with milk micronutrient concentrations in Indonesian mothers at 2 and 5 months postpartum. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 112, 1039-1050. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqaa200

Daniels, L., Gibson, R. S., Diana, A., Haszard, J. J., Rahmannia, S., Luftimas, D. E., … Reid, M., … Houghton, L. A. (2019). Micronutrient intakes of lactating mothers and their association with breast milk concentrations and micronutrient adequacy of exclusively breastfed Indonesian infants. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 110, 391-400. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqz047

Diana, A., Purnamasari, D. M., Rahmannia, S., Luftimas, D. E., Haszard, J. J., Gibson, R. S., & Houghton, L. A. (2019). Multimicronutrient biomarkers are related to anemia during infancy in Indonesia: A repeated cross sectional study. Current Developments in Nutrition, 3, nzz022. doi: 10.1093/cdn/nzz022

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