SHORT BIOGRAPHY

 

Sumantra (Shumone) Ray is a UK licensed medical doctor and a registered public health nutritionist. He is the Chief Scientist and Executive Director of the NNEdPro Global Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health in Cambridge. His work has been recognised through a decade and half of funding from UK Research Councils as well as Fellowships awarded by Wolfson and Fitzwilliam Colleges at the University of Cambridge. He holds a fractional appointment as a Full Professor of Global Nutrition, Health and Disease at Ulster University.

 

He has also been a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and most recently has been appointed as a Visiting Professor at Kings College London. Internationally, Shumone is an Honorary Distinguished Visiting Professor at the SNU Institution of Eminence in Delhi India. He is also the co-founder and Chair of the BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health. Professor Ray has published over 200 scientific papers. He is the editor of the Oxford Handbook of Clinical and Healthcare Research as well as the Elsevier Essentials of Nutrition in Medicine and Healthcare. Since 2024 he has also been Head of Nutritional and Preventative Medicine for the WellFounded Clinic.

 

 

SUMMARY OF KEY CROSS APPOINTMENTS

 

Ulster University

Professor of Global Nutrition, Health & Disease, NICHE Research Group

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Kings College London

Honorary Visiting Professor in Population Health Sciences

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University of Cambridge

'TIGR2ESS' Programme (Nutrition and Health) Director of Research

                                                                  

Imperial College London

Visiting Professor in Primary Care and Public Health

  

National Research Ethics Service (England)

Vice-Chair of the Oxford-A Research Ethics Committee of the Health Research Authority

 

Well Founded and Curia Health (England)

Head of Nutritional Medicine to the Well Founded Curia Health Clinic

 

Shiv Nadar University – Institution of Eminence (India)

Honorary Distinguished Visiting Professor

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UNICEF (East Asia and Pacific)

Consultant Expert Advisor

 

 

SUMMARY OF KEY FORMER APPOINTMENTS

 

2008-2010

NIHR Academic Public Health Fellow

University of Cambridge

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Corfield Scholar

Selwyn College, University of Cambridge

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2010-2018

Senior Clinician Scientist

UK Medical Research Council, Elsie Widdowson Laboratory Cambridge

 

2013-2018

Lead Clinician

National Diet and Nutrition Survey, UK Health Departments

 

2015-2019

Senior Clinical Tutor and Course Director

University of Cambridge

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2015-2020

Adjunct Professor in Public Health

University of Waterloo, Canada

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2015-2021

Governing Body Fellow of Wolfson College

University of Cambridge
 

2016

Editor-in-Chief

Oxford Handbook of Clinical and Healthcare

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2017-2022

Honorary Professorial Fellow

University of Wollongong, Australia

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2018-2019

Eminent Visiting Professor

University of Brunei

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2019

Distinguished Visiting Professor

University of Sao Paulo, Brazil

 

2022-2025

Principal Medical Academic Advisor

Modality NHS Partnership

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2021-2024

Bye-Fellow of Fitzwilliam College 
University of Cambridge

 

 

SUMMARY OF AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

 

• Fellow of the American College of Nutrition (2012)

• Josephine Lansdell Award, British Medical Association (2013)

• Honorary Lifetime Associateship, British Dietetic Association (2014)

• Deputy Chairman, BMA Conference of Medical Academic Representatives (2015)

• Complete Nutrition Outstanding Achievement Award, for NNEdPro (2015) 

• Multiple Visiting Professorial Awards and Invited Lectures (2015-2025)

• Deputy Chairman, BMA COMAR (2015)

• Medical Nutrition Industry Award, with ESPEN (2017)

• BMJ Awards Finalist, for NNEdPro (2016)

• Outstanding Achievement Award, UK Bengali Convention (2022)

• SNEB Program Impact Award for MTK Initiative (2022)

• Vice-Chancellor's Impact Award, University of Cambridge for TIGR2ESS (2021)

• Academic Guest of Honour, Universidad Iberoamericana, Tec de Monterrey, Mexico (2023)

• Fellow, Royal Society of Biology (2025)

 

 

FULL BIOGRAPHY

 

Professor Sumantra (Shumone) Ray qualified in 2001 with a degree in Clinical Medicine (with Distinction) and a Diploma in Nutrition and Health Education (with Merit). He subsequently undertook a Postgraduate Certificate in Medical Education, a taught Master of Philosophy Degree in Public Health with Epidemiology, and a Research Medical Doctorate in Nutrition and Cardiovascular Prevention. Shumone has also attained relevant professional body memberships/fellowships by competency assessment and received National Health Service training in Medicine and Public Health in the East of Scotland and the East of England.

 

Throughout his training, Shumone specialised in nutrition within hospital and public health medicine, receiving extensive training in both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. These exposures eventually culminated in the Editorship of the Oxford Handbook of Clinical/Healthcare Research (2016) as well as the Editorship of the Elsevier Textbook of Essentials of Nutrition in Medicine (2023). Additionally, Shumone had formal training in management and leadership (British Medical Association and the Institute of Leadership and Management) as well as social entrepreneurship (Innovate UK).

 

From 2003-8, Shumone worked as a Clinical Research Fellow and Honorary Clinical Teacher, as well as subsequently as a Senior Clinical Research and Teaching Fellow at the University of Dundee School of Medicine and its Institute of Cardiovascular Research, incorporating one of the UK's flagship Clinical Trials Units. From 2008-10, Shumone was a National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Public Health Fellow and Corfield Scholar at Selwyn College Cambridge. Following this, from 2010 to 18, he also held a Senior Clinician Scientist position with the Medical Research Council, focussing on nutrition and vascular studies, heading up a dedicated experimental medicine facility for human nutrition studies and also functioning as the Lead Clinician for the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey (c/o Public Health England) as well as working clinically at Cambridge University Hospitals. From 2010 to 2018, Shumone led undergraduate nutrition teaching in the Cambridge clinical/medical curriculum, and he was a University of Cambridge senior clinical tutor from 2015 to 18. 

 

Shumone was cross-appointed in Cambridge as a Governing Body Fellow of Wolfson College (2015-20) and Co-Lead for the Food, Nutrition and Education Work Package for the TIGR2ESS Programme in India (2017-22) led by the University of Cambridge and supported by the UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) Global Challenges Research Fund and he was appointed as Course Director in Nutrition Science at the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education (2017-19). In 2021, TIGR2ESS received the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Impact from the University of Cambridge. Shumone also received further personal recognition in Cambridge through a Bye-Fellowship of Fitzwilliam College (2021-24) at the University of Cambridge. Additionally, Shumone holds a fractional personal chair appointment as a Professor of Global Nutrition, Health and Disease at Ulster University as well as several honorary/visiting professorial appointments more widely, including Imperial College London in the UK. He is also an experienced Doctoral Supervisor at several universities, including Cambridge, Monash, Porto, Ulster, Utrecht, Waterloo and Wollongong, as well as a Doctoral Training Programme Advisor for BBSRC and ESRC (UKRI). He has served as a PhD examiner in Brighton, Cambridge, London, Nottingham and Parma.

 

In 2013, Shumone received the Josephine Lansdell Award from the British Medical Association (BMA) in support of work in Nutrition and Cardiovascular Prevention. In 2014, he was elected to the Honorary Lifetime Associateship award by the British Dietetic Association (BDA) council. Shumone was also elected Deputy Chairman of the 2015 BMA Conference of Medical Academic Representatives (COMAR). In 2015, NNEdPro won the Complete Nutrition Outstanding Achievement Award. Shumone was appointed Adjunct Professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada and received a Griffith University Visiting Fellowship from Australia.

 

In 2016, Shumone was appointed an Honorary Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and Ulster University in Northern Ireland. NNEdPro was a finalist and runner-up in the 2016 British Medical Journal (BMJ) Awards. Also, in 2016, Shumone published the Oxford Handbook of Clinical and Healthcare Research to strengthen basic research skills across the global health-related workforce and became Programme Director for the Cambridge Summer School in Applied Human Nutrition. In 2017, Shumone was elected to an Honorary Professorial Fellowship at the University of Wollongong Australia (2017-22), while NNEdPro won the Medical Nutrition Industry International Award with the European Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. In 2018, Shumone became the Founding Chair, along with the BMJ Group, of BMJ Nutrition, Prevention and Health. He was also invited to lecture at the University of Brunei Darussalam under their 'Eminent Visiting Professorship' scheme in 2018.

 

In 2019, Shumone was appointed a presidential Council Advisor at the University of Parma School of Advanced Studies on Food and Nutrition. In 2019, he was appointed as Honorary International Dean to the Cordia Colleges in India and recognised through an invitation to speak as an 'International Visiting Professor' to the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. From December 2018 to July 2019, Shumone served part-time as a Consultant on a special assignment to the Nutrition Directorate of the World Health Organization Headquarters in Geneva, leading the development of a strand of work in nutrition and healthcare capacity building within the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition 2016-25.

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NNEdPro and its Mobile Teaching Kitchen (MTK) Initiative, led by Shumone, won the Society for Nutrition Education and Behaviour Program Impact Award 2022. He also won the Outstanding Achievement Award from the UK Bengali Convention 2022 in recognition of the MTK. In 2022, Shumone was appointed to the NHS Modality Partnership (the largest primary care consortium in the UK) as a Principal Medical Academic Advisor and the Vice-Chair of a National Research Ethics Committee. He also played a key role in the UK's new health research inclusivity policy. In 2023, Universidad Iberoamericana and Tec de Monterrey in Mexico invited Shumone to deliver a series of lectures as an academic guest of honour, marking 30 years of the nutrition programme in Puebla and three years of the Mexico City MTK. 

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Furthermore, Shumone has served as an advisor to several national funding bodies over 2023/24, including the NIHR and UKRI. In 2024, Shumone was appointed as Head of Nutritional Medicine by Well Founded and Curia Health in the UK and India. He received the title of Honorary Distinguished Visiting Professor by the Shiv Nadar University (SNU) and Institution of Eminence, and he is an invited keynote speaker at the 2024 Times Higher Education Innovation and Impact Summit hosted by SNU.

 

In 2025, Shumone was appointed as an Honorary Visiting Professor in Population Health Sciences at Kings College London in recognition of contributions in the field and with the view to drive forward strategic collaboration, including on the London Interdisciplinary Social Sciences Doctoral Programme of which the NNEdPro Global Institute is a supporting partner. In early 2025, Shumone served as a visiting professor at the University of Malta (Faculty of Education) and was invited as a visiting academic lecturer by the University of Iceland (Department of Nutrition). In mid 2025 the Royal Society of Biology has also conferred Fellowship by special recognition to Shumone for contributions in Human Nutrition.