Cheney Fellowship Awardee from Universiti Putra Malaysia
The University of Leeds is grateful to Peter & Susan Cheney whose generosity has enabled the launch of the Cheney Fellowships. This prestigious programme brings highly talented and creative academics to Leeds to advance their research, build enduring collaborations and create a high-profile international network of world-leading researchers, scientists and engineers.
We are delighted to introduce the awardee for this year Dr Yit Siew Chin who will be hosted by the School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds. Dr. Yit Siew Chin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). Her prestigious Cheney Fellowship award period is for 2024-2026.
As a leading expert in child nutrition and public health, Dr. Chin serves as the Lead Researcher at the Centre of Excellence for Nutrition and Non-Communicable Chronic Disease and leads UPM’s Overweight and Obesity Research Programme. Her extensive work includes over 15 research projects and more than 100 peer-reviewed publications. Recently, she was honoured with the 2023 Outstanding Nutritionist Award from the Federation of Asian Nutrition Societies (FANS), recognising her contributions to advancing child nutrition.
Dr. Chin will be visiting the School for a number of times in the duration of the fellowship. Her first visit was 22 to 29 September 2024, and will be followed by further visits in 2025 and 2026. She will be working with her mentor, Prof. Yun Yun Gong, whose expertise in food safety nutrition and global health has greatly influenced Dr. Chin’s work. Together, they will tackle the Double Burden of Malnutrition (DBM) among children in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, with a focus on evaluating policies and interventions while developing culturally tailored, cost-effective programmes to improve child nutrition. This project will also be a collaborative effort involving key partners such as the International Life Sciences Institute Southeast Asia Region (ILSI SEA) and the Nutrition Society of Malaysia (NSM). These collaborations will enable a more comprehensive approach to addressing malnutrition, combining expertise from academic and professional organisations to create sustainable and impactful solutions.
The Cheney Fellowship will enable Dr. Chin to contribute meaningfully to policy and programme development within Malaysia’s food system, especially in addressing childhood malnutrition and food insecurity. Through this collaboration, her research will support sustainable, globally relevant solutions. Dr. Chin is honoured to be part of this initiative, made possible by the generosity of Peter and Susan Cheney, and she looks forward to fostering long-term collaborations that can bring lasting improvements to public health.