PROFESSOR CHRIS ELLIOTT OBE

CLASS OF 1977

QUB Professor, School of Biological Sciences Institute for Global Food Security

My formative years were spent at Belfast High School where my dual passions of sport and science were fostered and encouraged. The excellent facilities, especially the new science block and indoor and outdoor pitches, were the places I liked to spend most of my time, but my fondest memory is of the fantastic teaching staff who not only tolerated my continual challenging of the norm but actively encouraged it. The importance of asking difficult questions, but also trying to find solutions to complex problems, is something I have continued to do throughout my career. I strongly encourage pupils of Belfast High School to always challenge the status quo and think about how innovation, science and technology can change the way we do things in the future.

After a career as a government scientist, I went on to become Professor of Food Safety and founder of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast. I served as Pro Vice-Chancellor for the Medical and Life Sciences Faculty between 2015 and 2018 and am now also a Professor of Food Security at Thammasat University in Thailand and the China Agriculture University in Beijing. I also act as a scientific advisor to a range of United Nations agencies such as the World Food Programme and the FAO on food safety and security issues, particularly in the area of humanitarian food aid.

I have published more than 500 peer-reviewed scientific articles relating to the detection and control of agriculture, food and environmental-related contaminants. Protecting the integrity of the food supply chain from fraud is a key research topic, and I led the independent review of Britain’s food system following the 2013 horsemeat scandal.

I am a proud recipient of a Winston Churchill Fellowship and am an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Society of Biology. I have received numerous prizes and awards for my work. In 2017 I was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Theophilus Redwood Prize and was awarded an OBE in the same year. I was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2020 and in 2023 became the first Honorary President of the Society of Food Hygiene and Technology.