Organizing Committee
Goretti Guasch holds a degree in Economics and Executive MBA by Ramon Llull University, ESADE Business School in Barcelona. She is the INC Executive Director since 2003 and prior to this position she was the Coordinator of the INC headquarters. As chief executive of the INC and member of the Executive Committee, she is responsible for planning and developing strategic plans; to facilitate mutual understanding within the nut and dried fruit industry by promoting international meetings in producing and consuming countries; to promote international collaboration with national and international organizations, public and private, that share common or complementary interests; to coordinate the activities of the different working committees and ad-hoc groups related to membership and ambassadors, editorial and statistics, Congresses and Symposiums, Scientific and Governments Affairs, Nutrition and Education. The INC now serves a membership base of over 600 members from nearly 50 countries and has led the creation of an international source of information on nuts and dried fruits for health, nutrition, food safety, government regulations and a worldwide statistics Database.
INC - International Nut and Dried Fruit Foundation
Jordi Salas has occupied teaching and research posts at the Faculty of Medicine in Reus (UB) since 1984. At present, he is professor of Nutrition (Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology) and director of the Human Nutrition Unit of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the Rovira i Virgili University (URV).
The following hospital posts should also be mentioned: assistant physician at the Neonatology and Reanimation Service of the Hôpital Edouard Herriot (Lyon, France, 1987); assistant physician at the Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutritional Reanimation Service of the Hôpital des Enfants Malades (Paris, 1988). Since 1989, he has occupied a variety of medical posts at the Sant Joan University Hospital in Reus, and since 1991, is Head of Nutrition of the Internal Medicine Service.
At present, the Nutrition Unit of which Jordi Salas is director, is recognized by: a) the URV as the research group "Diet, Nutrition and Growth", b) the Catalan Centre for Nutrition of the Institute of Catalan Studies; c) the Autonomous Government of Catalonia as a Consolidated Research Group, d) the Carlos III Health Institute in the Thematic Network RD06/0045 "Health Diet in the Primary Prevention of Chronic Diseases: the PREDIMED network" and CIBERobn 'Obesity and Nutrition'.
He has directed 12 research projects financed by public bodies and 21 projects in conjunction with the pharmaceutical or food industries. He is one of the leaders of the PREDIMED clinical trial. He has published more than 220 original articles in national and international journals, as well as numerous reviews and editorials. Editor of 7 books, he has also co-authored more than 50 books.
The most important lines of research are: 1) inflammation, energy metabolism, obesity and diabetes; 2) the effect of nut consumption on metabolism; 3) the effect of nutrient intake on carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, 4) the effect of the Mediterranean diet on cardiovascular diseases, and 5) the effect of diet on body weight, insulin resistance, inflammation and endothelial function.
FESNAD - Federación Española de Sociedades de Nutrición, Alimentación y Dietética
Angel Gil is Full Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Granada, Spain and Head of the Research Excellence Group CTS-461 on Nutritional Biochemistry. He is the President of the Iberomerican Nutrition Foundation (FINUT), an institution supported by the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS), and Vice-President of the Spanish Society of Nutrition.
Prof. Gil has authored more than 320 articles published in peer-review journals and more than 100 book chapters. He is the Editor-in Chief of the Tratado de Nutrición, a textbook written in Spanish with 4 volumes and an Web site. He has promoted 44 PhD Thesis and 14 Master Degree Thesis
He managed the R&D team of Puleva SA and Abbott Lab from 1983 to 1994 and 1995 to 1996, respectively, being involved in the development of infant formulas and special diets for nutritional purposes, and a line of enteral nutritional products. From 2000 to 2004 he was the Director of the Foundation University of Granada-Enterprise.
The field of research of Prof. Gil has been related to the biological effects of dietary nucleotides, as well as lipid metabolism in early infancy. In the last ten years he also has been investigating the effects of olive oil in atherosclerosis and currently is leading various projects in nutrigenomics, particularly in the evaluation of gene expression of adipose and muscle tissue in childhood obesity and its association with prepubertal hormonal and metabolic changes related to early onset of metabolic syndrome.
He is the President of the Iberoamerican Council for Nutrition Journals, Associate-Editor of Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism and member of the Advisory Board of a number of selected jounals. He is a member of the Spanish Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (SENPE), Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Veterinary Sciences and Member of the Spanish Academy of Nutrition. He is the President and Chairman of the International Congress of Nutrition 2013 of the International Union of Nutrition Sciences (IUNS) that will be held in Granada, Spain 15-20 September.
IUNS - 20th INC - International Nutrition Congress / FINUT - Fundación Iberoamericana de Nutrición
Lluís SERRA-MAJEM (Barcelona 1959) is MD with a PhD in Nutrition, specialising in Preventive Medicine and Public Health. In 1995 he became Full Professor of Preventive Medicine & Public Health at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where he also holds the UNESCO Chair for Research, Planning and Development of Health Systems as well as serving as the Director of the Department of Clinical Sciences until 2010. Since 1997 he has been director of the Nutrition Research Foundation, University of Barcelona Science Park. He is also president and founder of the NGO Nutrition without Borders, and since 2009 he has been the president of the Spanish Academy of Nutrition and Food Sciences. From 1996 to 2012 he has been the Mediterranean Diet Foundation President and took a leadership role in promoting the recognition by the UNESCO of the Mediterranean Diet as Intangible Cultural Heritage. Author of more than 700 research papers and book chapters, he plays a leading role in both Public Health Nutrition and Mediterranean Diet at a global scale
FDM - Mediterranean Diet Foundation