As the new academic year approaches, the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences is pleased to introduce Professor Gerardo Mackenzie as the new chair of the Department of Nutrition.

Mackenzie has been with the department faculty since 2016. Before that, he spent nine years as an investigator and faculty member with the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He earned his bachelor’s degree, as well as a Ph.D. in cell biology, from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Mackenzie’s research focuses on nutritional science, particularly the role of diet in cancer development, prevention and treatment. He’s currently studying the impact of dietary interventions, such as the ketogenic diet, alongside chemotherapy as a novel treatment for pancreatic cancer. He’s also examining the role of diets with different fatty acid composition and its impact in cancer development and progression.

He succeeds Francene Steinberg, who has been with the department since 1996 and served as chair for the past 15 years. She will continue her role as a professor with the department. Mackenzie is looking forward to advancing the department’s strong momentum from Steinberg’s helm and driving further success.

“I’m excited to continue the great work that Dr. Steinberg has done,” Mackenzie said. “We are in an excellent position to continue to grow.”

Prioritizing student learning

Mackenzie said the department’s two majors – nutrition science and clinical nutrition – were recently revamped to offer students greater flexibility in shaping their career paths. Course work for the clinical nutrition major is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics, which provides students with the credentials and practical skills needed to pursue a career as a registered dietitian.

He will continue to teach his courses, including NUT 117: Experimental Nutrition, which covers current techniques in nutritional science for evaluating how well people meet their nutritional needs using analytical methods commonly used in nutrition laboratories. As chair, one of Mackenzie’s goals is to secure training grants for students, particularly in nutritional biology, and in maternal and child nutrition, two areas where he said faculty have significant expertise.

“Those are areas we could be very competitive for training grants,” he said. “I think we have different opportunities for undergrads and grad students to train the new generation of nutrition scientists.”

Advancing innovative research

He’s also enthusiastic about the diverse range of research and projects being pursued by faculty, students and researchers, including work in precision nutrition. This cutting-edge field focuses on tailoring dietary advice to fit an individual’s unique genetics, lifestyle and health needs.

“It’s an exciting time to be part of nutrition science,” Mackenzie said. “As we deepen our understanding of nutrition and how we can use nutrition knowledge to help prevent diseases, we can leverage new technologies, including digital tools that can provide us real-time nutrition data and help transform food systems. In addition, multi-omics technologies will enable us to identify mechanisms by which certain nutrients function. These advancements will accelerate progress in our science and our field.”

Mackenzie started his new role July 1.