Dr Javier Gonzalez from the Department for Health has been awarded the 2018 Julie Wallace Lecture for his research entitled Nutrition and hepatic glucose metabolism: A forgotten fuel store? He will present his research at the Nutrition Society Irish Section 2018 Conference on 21 June.

The Julie Wallace Lecture, in memory of Professor Julie Wallace and her sustained commitment to supporting and promoting early career researchers, is an award given by the Nutrition Society that recognises early stage scientific excellence in the field of nutrition.

During his talk, Javier will cover the importance of the carbohydrate stores in our liver in relation to health and exercise performance. He will also discuss how we can exploit nutritional strategies, such as changing the type and amount of carbohydrates that we consume, to optimise liver carbohydrate status for a given scenario.

Javier’s research explores how nutrition and exercise alter the fuels we burn, and how this influences health and exercise performance. He has published over 45 peer-reviewed articles in this area and, in doing so, he hopes to help better understand how we can prevent and treat diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, and also help athletes get the most out of their training and competition.

Reflecting on his selection for this award, Dr Javier Gonzalez said: “I am honoured to have been awarded the Julie Wallace Lecture 2018. In particular, because Professor Julie Wallace was renowned for her commitment to supporting early career researchers.”

“I am incredibly grateful of the support I have received from mentors at the University of Bath, such as Professor Dylan Thompson and Dr James Betts, and also those whom I have collaborated with externally, such as Professor Emma Stevenson (Newcastle), Professor Kevin Tipton (Stirling) and Professor Luc van Loon (Maastricht). I hope I can one day emulate their impact on me with a less experienced colleague.”