Dr. Francesco Branca is the director of nutrition for health and development at the World Health Organization. He has worked as a senior scientist at the Italian Food and Nutrition Research Institute and was president of the Federation of the European Nutrition Societies in 2003-2007. He finished medicine and surgery and specialized in diabetology and metabolic diseases at the Universita' Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Roma, and obtained a doctorate in nutrition at Aberdeen University.