RESEARCHERS

Wim Van Daele is the PI on the EATWELL project and is an Associate Professor at the Department of Nutrition and Public Health at the University of Agder. He has a background in social anthropology and worked previously as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo. He has spent visiting research stays at the Food Studies Centre at SOAS, The University of Chicago and Columbia University. His extensive research and working experience in food systems, including in Sri Lanka, has inspired the approach and design of EATWELL integrating the crucial contributions of each project member. He will conduct ethnographic research in Bumthang and the Punakha-Gasa valley following the lifelines of food as enmeshed with socio-cultural and material aspects. His fieldwork prepares the ground for the fieldwork in the other sites which he will coordinate and supervise.

Neyzang Wangmo is the Founding Director of the Medical Education Centre for Research, Innovation and Training (MECRIT) at KGUMSB. She obtained her PhD at the Faculty of Health Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. She is a key resource for the project owing to her experiences in committees and as Chairperson of the REBH at the Ministry of Health in Bhutan. Her in-depth and comprehensive knowledge of health issues and the health sector in Bhutan is of vital importance to the success of this project.

Elena Neri is a PhD student in the Health and Sports Sciences at the University of Agder (Norway), where she is specializing in the field of the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition. She has a food-focused interdisciplinary background - including food economics, product development, nutrition, and anthropology - in Italy and the UK. Before embarking on the EATWELL project, Elena completed her MA in the Anthropology of Food at SOAS (London) and then worked as a Research Assistant on the ‘Food, with Care’ project, supporting the development of a holistic food strategy for a children’s hospital in Cambridge. Elena will be carrying out ethnographic fieldwork in Thimphu and Haa, supervised by Wim and Heidi.

Kanchan Kattel is a PhD student specializing in public health under the Department of Nutrition and Public Health, Faculty of Health and Sports Sciences at the University of Agder. She has earned her MSc. degree in Environmental Science from Tribhuvan University and BSc. degree in Sustainable Development from Royal University of Bhutan. She has an interdisciplinary research background and prior experience in conducting agri-food-livelihood research in Nepal and Bhutan. Her research interest is around understanding how the food system in the Himalayas interacts with the bio-social environment, as well as how ongoing shifts in dietary behaviors impact food and nutrition security. In the EATWELL project, Kanchan will be carrying out nutritional survey in Bhutan under the supervision of Marianne, Anine, and Wim.

Marianne Morseth is Associate Professor of Public Health Nutrition at OsloMet. Morseth has experience in researching nutrition among children in Nepal, which provides a comparative advantage.

Heidi Fjeld is an Associate Professor in Medical Anthropology in the Department of Community Medicine and Global Health at the Institute of Health and Society, UiO. Her main expertise is Tibetan and Himalayan studies, focusing on culture, health, and healing among farmers in high altitude areas, which is relevant to this project. Fjeld is the co-organizer of the Tibetan and Himalayan research series at the UiO. She is also involved in culture-sensitive nutrition interventions in Malawi and is chair of the research group Engaged Community Medicine at UiO. She will co-supervise PhD 2.

Tandin Penjor is an Associate Lecturer in Political Science and Sociology programme at Sherubtse College in Bhutan. He is currently serving as the Programme Leader for the Political Science and Sociology Programme. Tandin holds a Master in Public Policy from University Malaya, Malaysia and a Bachelor in Political Science and Sociology form Sherubtse College. During his education and his academic career he has developed expertise in the fields of Political Science, Public Policy, and Sociology and Cultural Anthropology. His background in Cultural Anthropology and knowledge of the country and the eastern region will contribute to EATWELL. Tandin has also adeptly delivered life skills training in Communication skills, Motivation and Time Management to students and county leaders. These qualities will prove valuable in fostering good connections with stakeholders and communities important in conducting anthropological fieldwork central to this project.

Medin is an Associate Professor at the Department of Nutrition and Public Health at the University of Agder, Norway. Medin is an expert in dietary assessment methods, with extensive experience in developing new tools in different groups and validating these using biomarkers and observation techniques. She is currently the PI of VeggiSkills, in which sustainable eating habits among adolescents is in focus, where diet nutritional status, food- and nutrition literacy is investigated. Medin is also co-PI of a large nutrition implementation project, Nutrition Now, funded by the Norwegian Research Council. Moreover, she is currently leading a project in which develops and validates a Norwegian version of myfood24, which is a web-based dietary assessment tool, based on the Norwegian food composition table. She will ensure the quality of the dietary assessments in this project and will co-supervize the PhD student conducting the 24h dietary recalls and analyses.

Liv Elin Torheim is Department Director of the Department of Physical Health and Aging of the Norwegian Insitute of Public Health and is Professor of Public Health Nutrition at OsloMet—Oslo Metropolitan University. Torheim has extensive experience studying dietary intake, food security and child and adult nutritional status in Asia (Nepal and India) and Africa (Mali and Algeria). Her expertise in global nutrition and PhD 1 co-supervision are key to this project.

Nina Cecilie Øverby is a Professor of Public Health Nutrition and Nutritional Epidemiology at UiA. Her main research focus is nutrition in the early phases of life ranging from preconception, through pregnancy, childhood, and adolescence in relation to health outcomes. She heads the UiA Priority Research Centre of Lifecourse Nutrition and is the PI of Nutrition Now. She is a PI of seven dietary interventions in young children and their parents aiming to improve diet and reduce levels of obesity. She is a member of the National Nutritional Council of Norway since 2015 and she headed the national work on evaluating current dietary guidelines according to sustainability between 2015 and 2017. ensure the quality of the dietary assessments in this project and contribute to our analyses.

Karma Choki Dema is a 2022 graduate with a Bachelor degree in History from Sherubtse College. Her knowledge contributes with the historical perspective on changes occurring currently in Bhutan. Moreover, her leadership experience during school days has enhanced her leadership qualities as well as her communication and social skills, initiating interactive activities and fostering collaboration. She enjoys engaging with diverse individuals has a deep interest in studying culture. She also wishes to pursue further studies which is why she conducts ethnographic fieldwork and conducts qualitative interviews as a Research Assistant on the EATWELL project in Bhutan, participating in fieldwork and agriculture, cooking, and village gatherings and contributing to the understanding of food as entangled with culture and society.

Jelle J P Wouters is a Professor in Anthropology and Sociology, and the Chair of the Himalayan Centre for Environmental Humanities (HCEH), at Royal Thimphu College. He holds an MPhil (distinction) in Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford, and a PhD in Anthropology from the North-Eastern Hill University in Shillong, India. Prior to joining Royal Thimphu College in 2015, he taught at Sikkim Central University, India, and was a visiting faculty at the Eberhard-Karls University of Tübingen, Germany, for a year. His recent work is on the lived, relational, and multispecies dimensions of climate change in Bhutan and the larger Himalayas. He is attached to EATWELL as an overall social scientific advisor and incorporates environmental humanities and multispecies dimensions and approaches in the EATWELL project.

Sonam Euphel Choden graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Public Health, with a minor in Developmental Studies. During high school, Sonam was already active in society. She represented her Dzongkhag in a scout leadership program held at Military Training Center, Wangdue Phodrang every school vacation. She enjoys volunteering, sports, and literature, and was awarded a certificate of volunteerism by Her Royal Highness, the Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck. During her university studies, Sonam worked on secondary research projects related to WASH issues in Brazil, the risks faced by People Living with HIV/AIDS, the challenges of human trafficking victims, and the living conditions of South Asian migrant workers in the Middle East. During some internships in her university days, she gained practical experience at the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital, where she assisted with a patient satisfaction survey in 2021, and at the Royal Center for Disease Control in assisting with generating of COVID-19 reports and managing its data.
She will use her research and analysis skills to contribute to the nutrition/microbiome survey, stool sample collection in diligent way as a Research Associate. Sonam is excited to contribute positively to the EATWELL project and learn more along the way.

Kinley Gyem is the Deputy Chief Laboratory Officer with the Enteric, Zoonotic, and Vector-borne Disease Laboratory (EZVBDL) at the Royal Center for Disease Control (RCDC) in Bhutan. She has a Bachelor’s in Medical Microbiology and a Master’s in Implementation Research and has obtained a recent fellowship in Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) surveillance from the UK Fleming Fund Project. Her expertise encompasses enteric, zoonotic, and vector-borne diseases, where she oversees surveillance initiatives, coordinates the National External Quality Assurance Scheme (NEQAS) program and oversees laboratory operations. Proficient in microbiology, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), and fungal cultures, she also develops training, guidelines, and manuals to enhance lab practices. In the EATWELL project, she serves as the primary contact for sample collection and receipt from various sites to the RCDC. Her responsibilities include sorting, storing, and managing samples until they are shipped to the Raes lab, in Belgium. Additionally, she is responsible for laboratory testing and implementing techniques and technologies to enhance the lab's capacity and efficiency. She is passionate about advancing research and improving disease surveillance.

Prof. Jeroen Raes (m) is full professor at KU Leuven since 2013 and VIB group leader since 2009. His group currently consists of 30 scientists, with expertise in bioinformatics, systems biology, clinical research and microbiology. He has a substantial track record in microbiome research and has been pioneering the analysis and integration of meta-omics datasets (metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, metaproteomics, meta-metabolomics) with environmental, clinical, host omics and dietary data. He was involved in the FP7 MetaHIT and NIH Human Microbiome Project (the latter as only European partner), which laid the foundations for the human microbiome field as it is today. Finally, his lab is performing a wide range of disease-related projects in a.o. IBD, diabetes, cancer, IBS and depression and develops novel approaches and tools for microbiome research. Jeroen Raes coordinates the Flemish Gut Flora project, a large-scale microbiome- focused population cohort in Belgium. He has received multiple awards and recognitions, among which a selection as FWO Odysseus Fellow, a Francqui Chair and selection for Cell journal’s “40 under 40” promising young scientists. His 2011 paper in Nature was selected by Science as part of their “Top 10 breakthroughs of the year 2011”. Jeroen Raes has published >300 papers in top ranking journals such as Science (8), Nature (16), Cell (5), Nature Biotechnology (4), Nature Microbiology (7), Nature Reviews Microbiology (5), Gut (15) and PNAS (4). He has an h-factor of 95 and his work has been cited > 106.000 (ISI). Prof. Jeroen Raes oversees the microbiome component of the EATWELL project.

Raul Yhossef Tito Tadeo is a post-doctoral researcher at the Raes Lab at KU Leuven, within the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Transplantation, and VIB - Center for Microbiology. His research focuses on human microbiomics, with a particular emphasis on underrepresented human populations in North and South America. He has coordinated projects funded by the National Science Foundation (USA), the National Institutes of Health (USA), the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the Research Foundation of Flanders (FWO). Additionally, he has contributed to the establishment and implementation of international research collaborations with remote indigenous communities in Peru. He will coordinate the logistical planning and execution of the microbiome component of the EATWELL project, from the collection of biological materials to the analysis and interpretation of results.

Tshering Tobgay has a BSc. in Forestry (Honours) from College of Natural Resources, Lobesa, Royal University of Bhutan. For his B.Sc. thesis, he conducted research on ‘Diversity of Grasses and Sedges in various agro-ecological zones under Bumthang and Mongar District’, using Whittaker plot method with purposive sampling. He has also participated in the open questionnaire survey with rice and potato producing community of Samtenling, vendors of Gelephu vegetable market, Wholesaler who imports variety of rice at Gelephu, in Sarpang and Food Corporation of Bhutan and Rice production Mills at Phuentsholing and local community of Chapcha in Chukha on the economic life of the farmers and their business life on potatoes and rice, funded by FAO. Through this participation, he developed skills important in connecting with the organizations, local communities and business entities. These experiences are relevant in successfully contributing to the interactions with the community during the longitudinal nutrition and gut microbiome study at Laya, Gasa.

Tshering Wangchuk holds a Diploma in community and public health from the Khesar Gyelpo University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan. He is also a trained community health specialist with expertise in preventive healthcare, health education, and community outreach, reflecting his commitment to improving public health concerns at both individual and community levels. He has an experience in working with community people in Toedwang Gewog under punakha Dzongkhag, whereby he developed numerous communication and social skills to deal with the locals. His background in health studies and his understanding of health care system in Bhutan will contribute to his work as a research associate on the nutrition/microbiome part of the EATWELL project.