Main navigation

Hugo Melgar-Quiñonez

Associate Professor; Margaret Gilliam Faculty Scholar in Food Security

Academic Scholar, McGill Institute for Global Food Security

T: 514-398-7671 | Email | CINE Building 2-209

Degrees

Medical Doctor (Friedrich Schiller University- Germany; San Carlos University – Guatemala)
Doctor in Sciences (Friedrich Schiller University- Germany)

Short Bio

Dr Melgar-Quiñonez is the Margaret A. Gilliam Faculty Scholar in Food Security, with an appointment in the McGill School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition. With a degree in Medicine (1992) and a doctoral degree in Science s (1996) from the Friedrich Schiller University in Germany, he moved to McGill in September of 2012, after 9 years of work as a professor in the Department of Nutrition at the Ohio State University (2003-2012). Previously he worked in public health nutrition and food security research at the University of California in Davis (1998-2003) and at the Mexican Institute of Public Health (1996-1998). Dr Melgar-Quiñonez has been a food security advisor on to several countries in Latin America. He has conducted food security research in 20 countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas, and maintains a strong collaboration with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as a researcher in the project Voices of the Hungry which incorporates 150 countries.

Awards and Recognitions

2011. Distinguished Diversity Enhancement Award by the OSU College of Education and Human Ecology
2010. United Nation’s Food and agriculture Organization Award for best research in food security and nutrition in Latin America. (one of five awardees)
2009. Nominated for a Distinguished Undergraduate Research Mentor Award. Undergraduate Research Office. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States.
2009. First Place, National Winner, Television. Award received from the National Extension Association of Family & Consumer Sciences for the Nutrition Education Video “Rainbow of Colors”

Active Affiliations

Advisor on Household Food Security Measurement for Colombian, Brazilian, Guatemalan, Salvadorian, Bolivian, Ecuadorian, and Mexican governmental food security agencies
Scientific committee of Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale
Advisor to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s project “Voices of the Hungry"
Editorial Board Member of the Journal Food Security: the science, sociology and economics of food production and access to food, Journal Perspectivas en Nutrición Humana (Colombia), Journal Eutopia (Guatemala)
Advisory Board for Sesame Street Workshop Program “Healthy Foods for Food Insecure Children”

Research Interests

Dr Hugo Melgar-Quiñonez's Research concentrates in understanding the causes of hunger in developing countries and in vulnerable populations in industrialized countries, and its consequences to human health. He also works closely with development agencies and governmental programs fighting hunger, helping them to assess the impact of their programs.

Current Research

Dr Hugo Melgar-Quiñonez's research focuses on the validation and applicability of easy to apply instruments to assess food insecurity and hunger in the developing world and in vulnerable populations in industrialized countries. Additionally his research program incorporates many aspects of the relationship between food insecurity and its determinants and consequences, such as poverty and malnutrition in its different manifestations (undernourishment, overweight and obesity). Dr Melgar-Quiñonez's research is led by a public health approach and a global perspective to the issues of food insecurity and hunger. He maintains active collaborations with academic institutions, governmental and nongovernmental local and international agencies in over 20 countries around the globe.

Current research projects:

Improving maternal and child nutrition in Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia
Validity of experience-based food security scales in developing countries
Associations between food insecurity and corruption, gender disparities, personal health, and social support at the global level
Scaling-up of more nutritious potatoes in Colombia
Food insecurity in small farming families in Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Paraguay
Food Insecurity and Under‐Nutrition in Guatemala

Courses

NUTR 341 Global Food Security 3 Credits

Offered in the:

Fall
Winter
Summer

NUTR 641 Advanced Global Food Security 3 Credits