I am an early-career researcher with a PhD (awarded 5 Jan 2017) in public health nutrition and dietetics from Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney, an accredited practising dietitian (APD), and an NZ registered dietitian (NZRD) appointed as a senior lecturer (level C) in the faculty of medical and health sciences at University of Auckland. My research looks at scalable and sustainable properties of the food environment, including digital food environments through which flows of services and information that influence people’s dietary behaviours are directed, such as social media, digital health promotion interventions, digital food marketing and online food retail. My area of expertise is dietary behaviour change through appropriate personalisation of interventions, according to the requirements of the individuals and community, by using user-centred, co-design, and participatory research methodologies and proper integration of behaviour change techniques to motivate long-term changes. My current research centres on three key themes:​ (1) exploring the determinants of dietary choices to support improved outcomes for health and sustainability, (2) point-of-purchase interventions to promote healthy eating through nutrition education and food environment modification, and (3) social media, marketing and digital health promotion using various behaviour change techniques to influence individuals to engage in healthy eating behaviours.

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I have led many high-quality and independent research that have made original contributions to the literature and expanded knowledge and practice in nutrition and dietetics, particularly nutritional health promotion. I have developed an established research profile evidenced by original, high-quality, and independent research in public health nutrition, with global recognition (citations 1074, research interest score 478, h-index 18 and i10-index 21). I have published 39 peer-reviewed articles, and 3 book chapters, the majority as first and/or corresponding senior author and presented at various national and international conferences. I have been responsible for a range of strategic research outputs which have underpinned policy discussions and advocacy efforts around improving food environments in tertiary education settings. My total research income in competitive grants is NZD 4,634,872, of which NZD 216,810 as a primary investigator. I have demonstrated my ability to initiate and resource research projects with significant roles in collaborative research. I have built cross-disciplinary collaborations with the Department of Marketing, Computer Science and Engineering, Population Health, Commercial Services, Health Psychology, and national collaborations with Auckland District Health Board, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Primary Industries, Healthy Families New Zealand, and industry partners such as High-Value Nutrition, Plant and Food Research, Food and Grocery Council, Facebook, and public health stakeholders such as Heart Foundation New Zealand. I have built external and international research collaborations with the University of Canterbury, Victoria University, Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney, Westmead Research, the University of Bristol, University of Antwerp, University of Plymouth and Hebei Medical University in Shijiazhuang, China. The outcomes of my research have been extensively reported on in television, print, radio, and online media (for example, the Sydney Morning Herald, NZ Herald, the Australian, the Age, Radio NZ, Stuff.co.nz, The Project NZ, TV NZ Breakfast Show, The Conversation etc.).