Associate Professor Sumithra Muthayya

Associate Professor Sumithra Muthayya is the Study Director of SEARCH (Study of Environment on Aboriginal Resilience and Child Health), a large cohort study of urban Aboriginal children living in NSW. She facilitates the program of research, manages the large and complex partnership on which it is based, and facilitates the use of emerging evidence to inform the development of programs and policies to improve Aboriginal child health and health care. She is also a visiting faculty at the School of Public Health, University of Sydney.

She is a nutritional epidemiologist with interest and expertise in maternal and child nutrition, and food security among vulnerable populations. She has made research contributions that have examined the effects of maternal under-nutrition during pregnancy, particularly vitamin and mineral deficiency, on infant and child outcomes in developing countries. She has tested novel nutritional strategies to improve maternal and child nutrition in these populations.