Dr. Francesco Branca is the director of the Department of Nutrition for Health and Development in the World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva. During his tenure, WHO has established a new nutrition guideline development process and has developed the “Comprehensive Implementation Plan on Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition” with six global targets. He has been leading the preparation of the 2nd International Conference on Nutrition.
He has been a senior scientist at the Italian Food and Nutrition Research Institute where he was leading studies on the effects of food and nutrients on human health at the different stages of the life cycle and on the impact of public health nutrition programs. He was president of the Federation of the European Nutrition Societies in 2003–2007.
Dr. Branca graduated in medicine and surgery and specialized in diabetology and metabolic diseases at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome and obtained a Ph.D. in nutrition at Aberdeen University.