Meet the team

The Team

This course was created by scientists coming from three institutions: the University of Torino, the University of Hohenheim and the Institute of Food Research and Animal Reproduction (Polish Academy of Sciences).

We specialise in different fields: biology, psychology, and neurosciences. We hope that with our diverse knowledge, we will give you a broader picture of the relationship between our body, our mind and food.

The Educators of this course are:

Alessandro Cicerale is a Research Fellow at the University of Torino, Department of Psychology. During his career, Alessandro studied topics such as motor control, imitation and, more recently, the neuroscience and neuroimaging of eating disorders.

Nanette Stroebele-Benschop is Professor of Nutritional Psychology at the University of Hohenheim, in Germany. After her Ph.D. at Georgia State University in Atlanta, USA, Nanette worked as a postdoctoral research fellow and assistant professor at the Center for Human Nutrition, at the University of Colorado Health Science Center, Denver, USA. Her research interest and teaching responsibilities include behavioral and psychological aspects of eating behavior including obesity and eating disorders.

Monika Kaczmarek is a professor at the Institute for Food Research and Animal Reproduction of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Olsztyn, where she leads the Molecular Biology Laboratory. Monika is interested in the molecular aspects of reproduction, including embryo-maternal interactions during early pregnancy and diet-mediated nutritional programming of reproductive performance over generations.

This course involves also other teachers, speakers and mentors:

Julia Jaroslawska is an assistant professor at the Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research of Polish Academy of Sciences. Her research interests focus on central mechanisms controlling energy balance.

Dagmara Zlotkowska, is a researcher at the Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research of Polish Academy of Sciences. Her research interest concentrates on immune response induced by food compounds mechanisms which shift immune response from allergy to tolerance.

Jan Czerniecki is an academic at the Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research Polish Academy of Sciences. Jan is interested in the influence of environmental factors on human fertility.

Wieslaw Wiczkowski is an assistant professor at the Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research Polish Academy of Sciences. His professional interest is focused on the fate of phytochemicals during food processing and after intake during absorption, metabolism, and excretion.

Gerrit Hummel is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communication Sciences, and research assistant at the Department of Nutritional Psychology at the University of Hohenheim.

Please note that the Educators won’t be able to join the discussions themselves or respond to individual comments

What we would like you to do

We introduced ourselves and our research interests.

• What about you?
• What brought you here and what topic interest you most?