Professor Ian Young
Biography
Professor Young works at the FSA in a part-time capacity, whilst maintaining his current role of Consultant Chemical Pathologist at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and Professor of Medicine at Queen’s University in Belfast, where he previously directed the Centre for Public Health.
Professor Young’s clinical and research interests relate to nutritional biomarkers and the impact of nutrition on human health, particularly cardiovascular disease. In recent years he has focussed mainly on nutritional intervention trials and epidemiological studies. He is an author of over 450 published research papers.
Ian previously directed the University’s Centre for Public Health and held the post of Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Health in Northern Ireland and Director of Research for Health and Social Care, Northern Ireland. He also chaired the UK Government’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition from March 2020 to December 2025.
Throughout his career, Ian has held leadership positions in major scientific organisations. He is Past-President of the Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine, UK, and previously chaired both the Joint Committee for Traceability in Laboratory Medicine and the Scientific Division of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine.
Food Standards Agency Chief Scientific Adviser
The Chief Scientific Adviser is responsible for:
- the integrity of the processes used to source scientific evidence and ensure expert scientific advice is available to the agency
- representing the agency in the community of departmental Chief Scientific Advisers and the wider scientific community
- championing science within the agency through developing its scientists’ expertise
The CSA has overall responsibility for all of the analytical disciplines from which the agency draws advice: natural and physical sciences, social science, economics, operational research and statistics.