A Professor of nutrition at the University of Ghana, Anna Lartey, has been appointed the President of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences.

Professor Lartey becomes the first woman from Africa and the second woman in the world to head the World Nutrition body.

She was ushered into office with a colourful ceremony in Granada, Spain, last week.

She has been involved in several research works in nutrition, a recent one being a study into the level of obesity among Ghanaian school children.

Prof. Lartey was educated at the University of California, Davis, as a Fulbright student.

Her researches mainly focus on maternal child nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa.

She was a Co-Principal Investigator for the WHO Multicenter Growth Reference Study (MGRS), Ghana site, and the Ghana Principal Investigator for the International Lipid-based nutrient Supplement study (iLiNS).

She holds an International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Canada Research Chair in Nutrition for Health and Socio-Economic Development in sub-Saharan Africa.

Prof. Lartey was also a co-facilitator for Civil Society Taskforce of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement.