Dr Francesco Branca is the Director of the Department of Nutrition for Health and Development at the World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva. He graduated in Medicine and Surgery and specialized in Diabetology and Metabolic Diseases at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Roma. He obtained a PhD in Nutrition at Aberdeen University.
He was a senior scientist at the Italian Food and Nutrition Research Institute (INRAN), where he was responsible for the design and implementation of several studies on the effects of food and nutrients on human health at the different stages of the life-cycle, and for the design, management and evaluation of public health nutrition programmes.
He was President of the Federation of the European Nutrition Societies from 2003 to 2007.