Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: Professor David Conning was Director General of the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) between 1985 and 1994, although, as a toxicologist by background and training, he might have initially seemed a curious choice for the role. Indeed, he described his induction into the world of nutrition on joining BNF as 'a traumatic experience' from which he had yet to fully recover by the time he left! Nevertheless, he achieved many things during his time at the Foundation and his strategy helped to establish it on a firmer foundation, with better relationships with both government and industry. He believed strongly in the importance of a sound scientific evidence base and was a great advocate of nutrition education. He started many initiatives that are still going strong today. His time at the BNF was recognised by the award of an OBE in 1994 for services to nutrition education. David was born in 1932, the son of Walter and Phyllis Conning. He trained as a doctor and pathologist at Newcastle University, specialising in toxicology and went on to work at ICI’s Central Toxicology Laboratory for a number of years. He left ICI in 1978 to become the Director of the British Industrial Biological Research Association (Bibra). Although his work involved the safety of chemicals, he began, in his words, 'to explore the role of nutrients in the context of toxicology' and in 1983 edited a book, Toxic Hazards in Foods, which looked at specific diseases which were associated with food and tried to define the causative chemicals and the pathogenic processes. During his time at BNF, David worked hard to enhance the Foundation’s networks. For example, he strengthened BNF’s interaction with government departments, particularly the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Department of Health. He also established the Industry Liaison Group with senior industry leaders and built good relationships with other European Nutrition Foundations. He was a great champion for food and nutrition education, seeing it as of paramount importance to the improvement of the health of the nation. To that end, he initiated a wide range of education activities, including the National Nutrition Education Conference, the GCSE and then A Level Prizes, a consumer education research project in Leeds and most notably the Food a Fact of Life school programme. Many of these activities have gone from strength to strength and today BNF has an excellent reputation as a provider of evidence-based nutrition education resources for schools and teacher trainers. David was also passionate about evidence-based nutrition science and set about improving the rigour of the Task Forces and Science Briefing papers and strengthened the reputation of BNF as a source of evidence-based scientific information. He established the annual BNF prize in order to highlight academic excellence and to help build relationships with the academic nutrition community. He also saw the vital importance of good communication of such evidence-based information and initiated the newsletter, BNF News, as a channel for reaching a wider audience and wrote a book on nutrition aimed at consumers called Food Fit to Eat. He was very proud of his work with BNF and on leaving said, 'So far (my approach) has worked well and I am proud of what has been achieved. I have been blessed with the most enthusiastic and dedicated team it has ever been my privilege to work with, and have enjoyed the support of governmental and industrial colleagues to a degree which no one has the right to expect'. Since his retirement, David has been an Honorary Member of the Foundation. Honorary Members are those whom the Board of Trustees considers to have made an outstanding contribution to the Foundation. Gill Fine who, as Education Director at the time, oversaw the development of the education strategy with him, remembers him as a firm but very fair boss who expected 100% effort from everyone and who had a wickedly dry sense of humour! He was very keen on staff development and started the BNF Annual Staff Outing and Christmas lunch. I, Anne, previously worked at BNF during his time here and recall that he was always interested in the views of more junior staff members. He was a very kind person and I remember his enthusiasm for tinkering with old cars and his attempts to patch up my car which was on its last legs. BNF is indebted to David for his visionary leadership of the Foundation and sends its condolences to his partner, Lesley, and family on their sad loss.
Source: Nutrition Bulletin
DOI: 10.1111/nbu.12471
Authors: Anne de la Hunty, Judith L. Buttriss
Institution: British Nutrition Foundation
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W3102359331