Diabetes NZ Patron
Professor Sir Jim Mann
KNZM, PhD, DM, FRACP, FRSNZ
Professor Sir Jim Mann has pioneered research relating to the prevention and management of non-communicable disease at the University of Otago’s Departments of Medicine and Human Nutrition since 1988. He was a Consultant Physician (Endocrinology) at the Dunedin Hospital for over 30 years. Prior to that, he lectured at the University of Oxford and was a physician at the Radcliffe Infirmary.
Professor Mann’s research, published in more than 400 scientific publications, 90 book chapters and several textbooks, including Essentials of Human Nutrition, has informed world-leading interventions in the fields of human nutrition, diabetes, and coronary heart disease.
He has been appointed by the World Health Organisation to lead and serve on numerous international advisory groups, including the Collaborating Centre for Human Nutrition, the Nutritional Guidance Advisory Group and the Expert Advisory Panel on Nutrition, and he has led national committees which developed guidelines for the management of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease risk assessment in New Zealand.
Professor Mann is a Board Member of the Heart Foundation and previously served as Medical Advisor to Diabetes New Zealand, having contributed to the activities of both organisations for more than 30 years. He was the inaugural Director, and is now Co-Director, of the Edgar Diabetes and Obesity Research Centre, helping to raise more than $180 million in diabetes and obesity research funding.
He is currently Director of the Healthier Lives–He Oranga Hauora National Science Challenge, Director of the New Zealand–China Non-Communicable Diseases Research Collaboration Centre, and Principal Investigator for the Riddet Institute, a national Centre of Research Excellence.
Professor Mann is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. He has been awarded the Hercus Medal of the Royal Society and the University of Otago Distinguished Research Medal. In 2002, he was appointed a Companion of New Zealand Order of Merit for services to medicine and medical research, and in 2022 he was appointed a Knight Companion for services to health.