By Jonathan Riggs | October 25, 2024

Launched in 2022, the UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies, or RFI, has filled its top two leadership positions.

Jack Bobo, currently the director of the University of Nottingham’s Food Systems Institute, has been named the inaugural RFI executive director. An expert in sustainable food systems who also served as a senior advisor for food policy at the U.S. State Department, Bobo will bring his expertise to help RFI foster innovative solutions to global food challenges. Click here to read a Q&A with Bobo.

“I am honored to join the Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies at UCLA,” Bobo said. “This is an exciting opportunity to work alongside world-class experts and students to address the urgent challenges facing our global food systems. I look forward to contributing to UCLA’s mission of creating a more equitable and sustainable food system.”

Amy Rowat, who holds UCLA’s Marcie H. Rothman Presidential Chair in Food Studies, has been named the inaugural RFI faculty director. A global leader in the field, Rowat is a biophysicist, professor and vice chair of integrative biology and physiology, founder and director of the UCLA Science&Food nonprofit, and co-director of the EatWell pod of the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center. She recently made headlines for her research into cultured meat, as well as for spearheading the new UCLA Science&Food Future of Food Fellows program. Click here to read a Q&A with Rowat.

“With so much incredible work already being done at UCLA studying food from cultural traditions to human health to sustainability to policy, I am proud to take a leading role in how the Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies will unite these efforts to create new initiatives for students and researchers across campus,” Rowat said. “Food is key to a sustainable, healthy and equitable future for everyone, and I can’t think of a better place than UCLA to lead the charge.