ProfessorGary Sacks

Gary Sacks is Professor of Public Health Policy and Co-Director of the Deakin Centre for Global Preventive Health and Nutrition (GLOBE). He also directs the newly-established Research Translation Centre for the Commercial and Economic Determinants of Health based at Deakin University. Gary's research focuses on policies for improving population diets and preventing obesity, including evaluation of government and corporate policies for improving the healthiness and environmental sustainability of the food supply.

Gary has co-authored several international reports on obesity prevention, including the Lancet Commission on Obesity, and multiplpe reports for the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Gary also led the first-ever studies to benchmark progress on obesity prevention by Australian governments and food companies.

Gary co-founded INFORMAS (International Network for Food Environments Research, Monitoring and Action Support) - a global network (now active in 65+ countries) for monitoring food environments. Gary is a Strategic Director of INFORMAS as part of its Global Governing Council, and he co-leads the component of INFORMAS focused on monitoring the actions of food companies in relation to population nutrition.

Gary has a broad range of international public health research and policy experience. This includes research placements at the World Health Organization (Switzerland), the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services (Australia), Harvard University (USA), the University of Oxford (UK), and the International Telecommunications Union (Switzerland).

Gary has a PhD in Public Health from Deakin University. He also has tertiary qualifications in economics, information systems and health informatics.