Dr Florence Nabwire

Position Governing Body Fellow Junior Research Fellow
School Clinical Medicine MRC Epidemiology Unit Technology Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership
Personal website MRC Epidemiology Unit
Email fn237@cam.ac.uk
X @FlorenceNabwire
Department link Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)

Florence is a Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Fellow at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and an Honorary Fellow at the MRC Epidemiology Unit. Her research aims to develop strategies for achieving sustained improvement in the diets of young children in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Florence has a PhD in Biological Science from the University of Cambridge. Her PhD was jointly funded by the Medical Research Council, UK, and the Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She also has a BSc in Food Science and Technology and an MSc in Applied Human Nutrition, both from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. Before moving to the UK in 2013, she practiced as a Public Health Nutritionist at Baylor-Uganda, where she designed and implemented a pioneering programme integrating nutrition and food security into HIV care services, at over 300 government health facilities in 25 districts in Uganda.

Prior to joining the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), Florence was an Investigator Scientist in the MRC Nutrition and Bone Health Research Group, at MRC Human Nutrition Research Unit (renamed the MRC Elsie Widdowson Laboratory in 2018, permanently closed in December 2020).

Florence’s current research focuses on nutrition in the “first 1000 days” of life (from conception to two years of age) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The first 1000 days of life are regarded as a critical window of opportunity for preventing malnutrition and its long–term adverse consequences. Despite progress in child health in SSA, less than 15% of children younger than two years receive diets that meet their nutrition needs, and an increasing number are being fed unhealthy foods high in fat, sugar, and salt. This research aims to generate evidence and practical insights for policymakers, to inform the development of strategies for achieving sustained improvement in the diets of young children in SSA.