Professor Louise Dye

School of Psychology

Co-Director of the Institute of Sustainable Food

Photo of Louise Dye
Profile picture of Photo of Louise Dye
l.dye@sheffield.ac.uk

Full contact details

Professor Louise Dye
School of Psychology
Interdisciplinary Centre of the Social Sciences (ICOSS)
219 Portobello
Sheffield
S1 4DP
Profile

Louise Dye is Professor of Nutrition and Behaviour in the School of Psychology, Co-Director of the Institute for Sustainable Food at the University of Sheffield, Co-Director of the SFI/DAERA/UKRI funded Co-Centre for Sustainable Food Systems and Co-Director of the National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC). 

Louise has held MRC and Royal Society Postdoctoral Fellowships in the UK and Europe and a EU funded Marie Curie Professorial Fellowship in Jena, Germany. She is a Chartered Health Psychologist and member of the British Psychological Society. Professor Dye began her career in Human Psychopharmacology and has over 30 years’ experience in the assessment of cognitive function following nutritional and pharmacological intervention. She has supervised 30 doctoral students, many in collaboration with industry or NHS partners.

Research interests

Louise Dye’s core research interest is on the effects of food on health, particularly cognitive health, throughout the life course. She has interests in cognitive ageing/dementia and how we can use food to maintain cognitive function in older age. She has led research examining the effects of breakfast on cognitive performance and academic outcomes in children and adolescents (published as The effects of breakfast on behavior and academic performance in children and adolescents, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2013). Her research group (Nutrition and Behaviour, Human Appetite Research Unit at the University of Leeds) conducted research which examined the effects of diet on stress in humans and farmed animals (with Prof Lisa Collins and Dr Neil Boyle) and led to the development and validation of a method of stress induction suitable for randomised crossover studies.

Currently, Louise leads WP5 of the Transforming UK Food Systems (TUKFS) programme grant funded by the Strategic Priorities Fund "Healthy Soil, Healthy Food, Healthy People" (H3). This WP explores ways to sustainably increase fibre consumption in children, adolescents and adults in the UK, especially in the context of food insecurity which can have profound effects on psychological well-being as well as health consequences.

Launched in 2024, funded by BBSRC and Innovate UK, the National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC) is a new £38 million centre which is co-led by the University of Sheffield, University of Leeds, Imperial College London and James Hutton Institute, and will work with over 120 partners around the world. Louise will lead the Sheffield team on the centre’s research to deliver alternative proteins that offer benefits for health, and which are affordable and appealing to the public. She will lead the People Pillar which includes Institute for Sustainable Food members Dr Sam Caton, Prof Bhavani Shankar and Dr Alex Sexton. The researchers will also identify new business opportunities for farmers and producers, and work to future-proof the UK’s protein supply against reliance on imports. 

The Co-Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, launched in 2024, led by University of Sheffield, Queen’s University Belfast and University College Dublin and funded by SFI, DAERA and UKRI is a €35m initiative which brings together world-leading researchers from across the UK and Ireland. The Co-Centre offers expertise in food safety, food production, nutrition, plant and animal science, behavioural change, data science, food system governance, and the process of food system transformation. The interdisciplinary research team will work collaboratively with government, policymakers and industry stakeholders across jurisdictions to drive food systems transformation through societal and political change in the transition to climate neutrality by 2050.

Louise spent 30 years at the University of Leeds where she was Professor of Nutrition and Behaviour and N8 Agrifood chair and academic lead for the N8 AgriFood Programme. 

Louise was elected as President of ILSI Europe in 2021 and Co-Chair of ILSI Global in 2022 and as past President of both is a member of their Board.

She served on the BBSRC Strategic Advisory Panel for Biosciences for Health as a member and then as Chair and chaired the working group on Neuroscience and Mental Health. She was also a member of the BBSRC Diet and Health Research Industry Club (DRINC) Steering Group and is now on the management team of 3 of the Open Innovation Research Clubs (STAR, i-Nutrilife and Consumer Lab. She is Associate Editor of Nutritional Neuroscience and until recently was Associate Editor of the European Journal of Nutrition.

Publications

Books

  • Best T & Dye L (2015) Nutrition for brain healthand cognitive performance. RIS download Bibtex download

Journal articles

Chapters

Conference proceedings papers

Preprints