Jim Mann (scientist)

Mann was born in George, Western Cape, South Africa, on 30 September 1944, the son of Pearl Mann (née Joseph) and Harry Bernard Mann.{{cite book |title=Who's Who in New Zealand |year=2019 |edition=2nd |publisher=Asia Pacific InfoServ |location=Sydney |isbn=978-1-925598-92-6 |page=207}} He studied at the University of Cape Town, graduating MB ChB in 1967, and PhD in 1971. The title of his doctoral thesis was Some factors influencing serum triglyceride in man.{{cite thesis |first=Joel Ivor |last=Mann |title=Some factors influencing serum triglyceride in man |url=https://uct.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma990003987930904041&context=L&vid=27UCT_INST:27UCT&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&tab=Everything&lang=en |year=1971 |type=PhD |publisher=University of Cape Town |accessdate=1 September 2019}} He then completed Master of Arts and Doctor of Medicine degrees at the University of Oxford in 1975.

On 28 January 1978, Mann married Helene Vicary Jones, and the couple went on to have two children.

Between 1975 and 1987, Mann was a university lecturer in social medicine at the University of Oxford, and concurrently a consultant physician at the John Radcliffe Hospital. He became a fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford in 1977.

In 1988, Mann moved to New Zealand where he was appointed professor of human nutrition and medicine at the University of Otago,{{cite news|first1=Amy|last1=Fleming|accessdate=2019-01-11|title=High-fat oil and low-paid farmers: the cost of our coconut craze|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jul/12/high-fat-oil-and-low-paid-farmers-the-cost-of-our-coconut-craze|newspaper=The Guardian |date=12 July 2017|issn=0261-3077|via=www.theguardian.com}}{{cite news|accessdate=2019-01-11|title=Schools need national health food policy, researchers say|url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12118468|newspaper=The New Zealand Herald |date=3 September 2018|issn=1170-0777|via=www.nzherald.co.nz}}{{cite web|accessdate=2019-01-11|title=Green leafy veg 'may cut diabetes risk'|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/news/story/2010/08/100820_diabetes.shtml|website=www.bbc.co.uk}} and consultant physician (endocrinology) at Dunedin Hospital.{{cite web|accessdate=2019-01-14|title=Department of Medicine staff profiles|url=https://www.otago.ac.nz/dsm-medicine/people/profile/?id=721|website=www.otago.ac.nz}} He is also a director of the Edgar Diabetes and Obesity Research (EDOR,{{cite web|accessdate=2019-01-14|title=Edgar Diabetes and Obesity Research About us|url=https://www.otago.ac.nz/diabetes/about/index.html|website=www.otago.ac.nz}} a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Human Nutrition at the University of Otago) and a principal investigator for the Riddet Institute at Massey University.{{cite web|accessdate=2019-01-14|title=Professor Jim Mann|url=http://www.riddet.ac.nz/our-people/professor-jim-mann|website=www.riddet.ac.nz}} In 2015 he was appointed director of Healther Lives – He Oranga Hauora, a National Science Challenge based at the University of Otago.{{Cite news |last=Elder |first=Vaughan |date=2015-12-05 |title=Magnitude of health challenge highlighted |language=en |work=Otago Daily Times |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/magnitude-health-challenge-highlighted |access-date=2023-09-03}} One of Mann's notable doctoral students is Professor Rachael McLean.{{Cite thesis |title=Sodium in New Zealand: intake, consumer perceptions, and implications for chronic disease |last=McLean |first=Rachael Mira |type=PhD thesis |publisher=OUR Archive, University of Otago |url=https://hdl.handle.net/10523/4296 |date=2013}}

Mann and his team at the University of Otago carried out a major review for the World Health Organization (WHO) of the scientific evidence on sugar and weight gain, published in 2013 in the British Medical Journal.{{cite news|first1=Sarah|last1=Boseley|accessdate=2019-01-11|title=Sugar intake must come down, says WHO – but UK likely to resist|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/07/sugar-diet-who-uk-experts|newspaper=The Guardian |date=7 September 2013|issn=0261-3077|via=www.theguardian.com}} The review, which showed that sugar "unquestionably contributes to obesity", "informed WHO guidance on curbing sugar in the diet, leading to sugar taxes around the world."

Mann and his coworkers at Otago carried out a "landmark" review, commissioned by the WHO and published in The Lancet in 2019. The analysis of population epidemiological studies and feeding studies said that dietary fibre in "good" carbohydrates will cut people's chances of early death from a wide range of diseases including cardiovascular disease (heart disease), coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, reduction in body weight and cholesterol—increasing satiety and helping weight control and favourably influencing lipid and glucose levels.{{cite news|first=Sarah|last=Boseley|accessdate=2019-01-11|title=Blow to low carb diet as landmark study finds high fibre cuts heart disease risk|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jan/10/high-fibre-diets-cut-heart-disease-risk-landmark-study-finds|newspaper=The Guardian |date=10 January 2019|issn=0261-3077|via=www.theguardian.com}} The report made examples of "good" carbohydrates being whole grain bread and oats, wholegrain cereals, pasta and bread, nuts and pulses and declared sugar a "bad" carbohydrate.

• Bristol-Myers Squibb/Mead Johnson Unrestricted Grant for Human Nutrition, Bristol-Myers Squibb Awards, Bristol-Myers Squibb / Mead Johnson{{cite web|accessdate=2019-01-14|title=Professor Jim Mann|url=https://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/seminar_sugars_6Jul12_ProfMann/en/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140422213110/http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/seminar_sugars_6Jul12_ProfMann/en/|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 April 2014|website=World Health Organization}}
• 2002 – University of Otago Distinguished Research Medal
• 2002 – Appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to medicine, in the 2002 Queen's Birthday and Golden Jubilee Honours{{cite news|accessdate=2019-01-14|title=Queen honours artists, mathematicians, sports people and literary lights|url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/|date=3 June 2002|issn=1170-0777|newspaper=The New Zealand Herald}}{{cite web|accessdate=2019-01-14|title=NWU, Potchefstroom Campus, News: Record books rewritten with number of doctorates awarded|url=http://www.nwu.ac.za/nwu-potchefstroom-campus-news-record-books-rewritten-number-doctorates-awarded|website=North-West University}}
• 2004 – Sir Charles Hercus Medal of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi{{cite web|accessdate=2019-01-14|title=Royal Society Te Apārangi - Recipients|url=https://royalsociety.org.nz/what-we-do/medals-and-awards/hercus-medal/recipients-2/|website=royalsociety.org.nz}}
• 2005 – Distinguished Researcher Award from the University of Otago Dunedin School of Medicine{{cite web|date=April 29, 2005|accessdate=2019-01-14|title=School of Medicine inaugural Research Awards|url=http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE0504/S00104/school-of-medicine-inaugural-research-awards.htm|website=Scoop}}
• 2012 – Himsworth Award from the Nutrition Group of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes{{cite web|first1=John|last1=Gibb|accessdate=2019-01-11|title=Global award for Otago researcher|url=https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/global-award-otago-researcher|date=4 July 2012|website=Otago Daily Times }}

In the 2022 New Year Honours, Mann was promoted to knight companion.{{cite news |title=Six new dames, knights |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/six-new-dames-knights |access-date=30 December 2021 |work=Otago Daily Times |date=31 December 2021}}

• Essentials of Human Nutrition. New York: Oxford University Press. Co-edited with Stewart Truswell. 1998; 2002, {{ISBN|0-19-850861-1}}; 2007, {{ISBN|978-0199290970}}; 2011, {{ISBN|978-0199566341}}; 2017 {{ISBN|9780198752981}}.

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Category:1944 births

Category:Living people

Category:Academic staff of the University of Otago

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand

Category:People from George, South Africa

Category:University of Cape Town alumni

Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford

Category:Fellows of Wolfson College, Oxford

Category:South African emigrants to the United Kingdom

Category:South African emigrants to New Zealand

Category:New Zealand endocrinologists

Category:South African nutritionists

Category:South African endocrinologists

Category:Knights Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit