In addition to his roles as Deputy Executive Director and Programme Director of Clinical Nutrition at SICS and Director of CNRC, Professor Christiani Jeyakumar Henry also serves as a professor at NUS’ Department of Biochemistry. Previously serving on Tufts University’s International Obesity Consortium committee and the Food Standards Agency’s (UK) General Scientific Advisory Committee, Singapore Food Agency (SFA), Health Claim Advisory Committee. He even had a regular spot as scientific commentator on Mediacorp Channel 5’s popular health and lifestyle TV series The Food Detectives.
A trailblazer in food science and nutrition, he played an integral role in the inauguration of the UK’s first dedicated Functional Food Centre at Oxford Brookes. Formerly the Head of Food Sciences and Nutrition at Oxford Brookes University, he developed the “Henry Equations” – now widely used to calculate Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) – during his time there. With over 360 papers and 380 lectures to his name, Professor Henry also pioneered the disruptive science that explores how food structure can be manipulated to influence physiological and nutritional properties.
Harnessing a keen understanding of glycaemic control, the role of glycaemia in body weight regulation, food-nutrient interactions and functional foods, Professor Henry has worked in both Europe and Asia with the academic, industrial, governmental and United Nations agency sectors, providing expertise on global nutrition, product development and food policy. Thanks to his passion and expertise in the field, CNRC has attracted international food companies including Beneo, Nestlé, General Mills, Tate & Lyle to collaborate on cutting-edge research.
In 2010, he was awarded the British Nutrition Foundation prize for his outstanding contribution to nutrition and was subsequently made a Fellow of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology. In 2018, he was the Grand Prix winner at the Niigata International Food Awards – often referred to as Asia's version of the World Food Prize award. In 2019, he received the prestigious W.K. Kellogg International Food Security Award from the Institute of Food Technology (IFT) USA for his pioneering contribution to international food and nutrition research, and the NutraChampion Award at the NutraIngredients-Asia Awards 2019 which honours the best and brightest in the nutrition and dietary supplements industry.
Professor Jeyakumar Henry graduated with a Food Technology degree from the University of Bombay, and received his MSc and PhD in Human Nutrition from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.