We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. George Moschonis has been appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of the “Nutrition Methodology & Assessment” Section in Nutrients (ISSN: 2072-6643).

Name: Prof. Dr. George Moschonis
Homepage: https://scholars.latrobe.edu.au/gmoschonis
Affiliation: School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport, La Trobe University, Melbourne 3086, Australia
Interests: nutritional epidemiology; nutrition research methodology; nutritional assessment; nutrition counseling; functional foods

Prof. Dr. George Moschonis is a Professor at the Department of Dietetics, Nutrition and Sport at La Trobe University. Until December 2019, Prof. Dr. George Moschonis was the Head of the Discipline of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics.

Prof. Dr. Moschonis’ main research area of interest is the identification of determinants or predictors (starting from very early life stages) of obesity and obesity-related cardio-metabolic complications and the design and evaluation of the clinical effectiveness of nutrition counseling programs aiming to tackle the societal challenge of obesity and related co-morbidities (type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, etc.).

In addition, his research expertise also extends toward the development of new functional food products, as well as to the design and implementation of human clinical trials that set the basis for the assessment of the clinical effectiveness of functional foods and dietary supplements in tackling nutrition-related health conditions.

Prof. Dr. George Moschonis is currently the chief investigator in several funded research projects taking place in Europe and Australia. As of May 2023, Prof. Dr. Moschonis has published 231 research articles in high-impact international peer-reviewed scientific journals, authored several book chapters and is a highly cited author, with his research outputs having more than 19,000 citations based on Scopus.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. George Moschonis, who shared his vision for the journal and his views on the research area and open access publishing:

1. What appealed to you about the journal and encouraged you to become its Section Editor-in-Chief?
Nutrition methodology and assessment have been the focus of my academic activity and research over the last 20 years. As I was evolving in this field of nutritional science, I realized the need for methodologically valid and standardized approaches that can increase the quality of the evidence coming from nutrition research. In this regard, there are still several aspects of nutrition methodology and assessment that require refinement, as a means to reduce bias and improve the strength of scientific evidence, thus also setting a more solid basis for translation to nutrition guidelines and public health policy.

2. What is your vision for Nutrients?
I strongly believe that the "Nutrition Methodology & Assessment" Section in Nutrients will attract ample attention and interest from nutrition scientists and researchers globally, as it contributes towards the filling in of an important gap in nutrition science. At the same time, it will provide the opportunity for proposing and examining the validity of novel approaches and updates in nutrition research methods, including nutritional assessment techniques, data collection tools and processes, thus serving as a landmark for current and future researchers.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?
There is a great need in the nutritional science community for standardized and scientifically valid methods in nutrition data collection and assessment. This necessity sets the basis for novel methods and tools, including digital solutions, which are expected to play an integral part and shape the future of nutrition research. The "Nutrition Methodology & Assessment" Section in Nutrients will foster high-impact articles in this significant and growing field of research.

4. What do you think of the development of open access in the publishing field?
Open access is quite important in research, as it allows the wider dissemination of scientific evidence not only to the scientific world, but also to the media, policy makers, educators and practitioners, thus facilitating the translation of research into practice, with numerous benefits for public health.

We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. George Moschonis as the new Section Editor-in-Chief and we look forward to him leading Nutrients to many more milestones.