We’re delighted to congratulate Dr Megan Rollo (Accredited Practicing Dietitian) as the recipient of the inaugural Chester Goodsell Memorial Award. Megan wins the award for her outstanding contribution to the use of technology in the field of evidence-based nutrition analysis for health and wellbeing.

About Dr Megan Rollo

Dr Megan Rollo (BAppSci (QUT), BHlthSci (Nutr&Diet) (QUT), PhD (QUT)) is a Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics, within the School of Population Health, Curtin University. Prior to joining Curtin University in December 2021, Dr Rollo was a Research Fellow at the University of Newcastle.

Dr Rollo has expertise in the use of technology-assisted approaches to measure dietary intake, deliver behavioural nutrition interventions and support dietetic practice. To date, she has over 110 journal publications and been awarded more than $5.5 million in research funding.

Summary of Megan’s work related to the award

Dr Megan Rollo is an Accredited Practising Dietitian with over 14 years’ experience in using technology to support various applications within the discipline of nutrition and dietetics.

One of her major contributions so far has been leading the development, implementation and evaluation of the VISIDA dietary assessment system (http://www.visida.org ) specifically designed for use in low and lower-middle income countries.

The system facilitates the collection, analysis and interpretation of individual level dietary intake data via images and voice recordings. She also regularly contributes to professional development within the dietetics profession on areas relating to digital health including telehealth.

About the Chester Goodsell Memorial Award

This new Dietitians Australia Award honours the contributions of the late Chester Goodsell (1956-2020) who was the creator of the FoodWorks nutrition analysis software, the leading software package for nutrition analysis in Australasia.

Chester considered his life’s work to be developing innovative nutrition analysis solutions for the good of all. Thousands of dietitians and nutritionists in Australia and New Zealand, as well as the general public, have benefited from his passion for using technology to make accurate and empowering nutrition analysis readily available.

The Chester Goodsell Memorial Award is a tribute to his life and his contribution to the dietetics profession and to public health. It is sponsored by Xyris and Bizcaps’ CEO Rob Clifton-Steele.

The successful recipient receives a financial contribution as well as an annual subscription to Foodworks.

The award was presented at the annual Dietitians Australia awards ceremony in August 2022.