Georgie Russell

I am a behavioural nutrition scientist and Senior Lecturer in the Deakin Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition and the School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences at Deakin University. I lead a program of research on behavioural nutrition, examining how family and wider food environments influence eating behaviours, and how children's appetite self-regulation develops across childhood. I am Course Director of the Graduate Certificate of Health Research Practice, Co-chair of the Dietary Patterns and Eating Behaviours group within the Deakin Institute For Physical Activity and Nutrition, and Co-Director of the International Child Eating Behavior Collaborative, an international network of researchers working together to advance understanding of child eating behaviours. I teach in the areas of behavioural nutrition, research methods, food systems and behaviour change.

I became interested in this field because I observed that healthy eating was difficult for many, but not all, people. I wanted to understand how we learn about eating in childhood, why some people find healthy eating easier than others, how our eating behaviours shape our food choices and intakes, and what strategies are therefore going to help make healthy eating more achievable for people with different approaches to eating and who live in different sociodemographic contexts. Within my research program I seek to develop a rigorous, mechanistic understanding of eating behaviour and food choices which is necessary to inform the design of effective interventions and policies that meaningfully shift dietary outcomes. My work is characterised by a focus on advancing theory, building research capacity, and translating findings into practice and policy. I work in multidisciplinary teams integrating expertise across nutrition science, visual communication design, food policy, artificial intelligence, and marketing.

I have published around 100 peer-reviewed journal articles in behavioural nutrition, with an H-index of 39 and over 7,500 citations. My research is cited across 60 policy documents in 18 countries, and I have developed three influential conceptual models that have been adopted by research groups nationally and internationally. I was awarded the Faculty of Health Mid-Career Research Fellowship in 2021 and was Highly Commended in the 2025 Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Multidisciplinary Research. For more information on my current research activities, please visit the My Research tab.

I have a strong commitment to developing the next generation of behavioural nutrition researchers. I supervise undergraduate and postgraduate students and have supervised 16 Honours and Research Masters students and seven PhD candidates to completion, with six doctoral candidates currently enrolled, including three cotutelle students with Aston University. Several of my former students and postdoctoral researchers now hold independent academic positions nationally and internationally. I am able to supervise students in the areas of behavioural nutrition, child eating behaviour, appetite self-regulation and food environments.