The Asia Pacific Clinical Nutrition Society 2008 Award

Widjaja Lukito was born in Surabaya, Indonesia on August 29th 1958. He undertook his medical training at Airlangga University in Surabaya and his PhD work in nutritional immunology at Monash Univesity, Melbourne, Australia in conjunction with internal medicine specialist training in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism at the Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne. He became a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Monash University, a role he continued on his return to Indonesia to facilitate clinical academic and public health co-operation between Indonesia and Australia. He joined the SEAMEO-TROPMED (South East Asian Ministries of Education Tropical Medicine) Regional Centre for Community Nutrition, based at the University of Indonesia and ultimately became the director of the Center. At the same time he has taught in the Clinical Nutrition Specialty of the Postgraduate Program in Nutrition, at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia. This combined professional approach and responsibility has enabled Widjaja Lukito to build Clinical and Public Health Nutrition not only in Indonesia, but in the region.

He has fostered a vigorous research program amongst young South-East Asians who have participated in the various graduate programs co-ordinated through the regional community nutrition program and this capacity-building role will be enduring. His research interests have spanned those of childhood and the aged, the spectrum of nutritionally-related diseases referred to as the Double Burden of Nutrition, the community and the hospitalized, in nutrition assessment and body composition, of food systems and food choice.

He has contributed to various organizations which have benefited from his leadership. In particular, he was foundation Treasurer of the Asia Pacific Clinical Nutrition Society in 1993, then Vice-President and served as its President from 2000 to 2004. He chaired the IUNS (International Union of Nutritional Sciences) Task Force on “Nutrition and Resistance to Infectious Disease” and was a member of its Nutrition and Ageing Committee. He has been a member of the UNU (United Nations University)/IUNS Task Force on Capacity-Building in Nutrition in Asia. He is a Scientific Advisory Panel member of the International Life Science Institute in South East Asia, is currently President of the Indonesian Clinical Nutrition Society and a committee member of the Indonesian Society of Atherosclerosis and Vascular Diseases. He is also a member of various Expert Panels of the Indonesian Medical Nutrition Society.

He is on several Editorial Advisory Boards, the Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health, the Malaysian Nutrition Journal and the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition. He has had a long-standing interest and involvement in critical health and nutrition situations through World Vision. Since 2006, he has been a Special Advisor to the Indonesian Minister of Health on Health Policy. In his current position, he has taken an increasing role in Health Policy, especially in relation to Avian Influenza and Health and Development. He is a member of the Expert Group on Global Health and Foreign Policy (an initiative of the Foreign Ministers of Brazil, France, Indonesia, Norway, Senegal, South Africa and Thailand).

The annual Asia Pacific Clinical Nutrition Society Award is made to persons who have made exceptional contributions to the health, well-being and nutritional status of peoples in the Asia Pacific Region. Dr Lukito meets and represents these criteria admirably.

Citation By
Mark L Wahlqvist