Associate Professor Andrew Reynolds is a globally recognized epidemiologist and researcher in the Department of Medicine at the Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago (Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka) in Aotearoa New Zealand. He serves as the Co-Director of the Edgar Diabetes and Obesity Research Centre (EDOR) and the Associate Dean of Research for the Faculty of Medicine. His research focuses on lifestyle and environmental interventions to prevent and manage non-communicable diseases, with a special focus on the critical relationship between carbohydrate quality and human health. Dr. Reynolds holds a Bachelor of Science in Human Nutrition and Biochemistry from La Trobe University, an international Erasmus Mundus Master of Science in Food Science, Technology, and Nutrition, and a PhD in Human Nutrition alongside a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of Otago. His research utilizes randomized controlled trials, epidemiological data and evidence synthesis from systematic reviews and meta-analyses to build population and clinical guidelines for the World Health Organization, the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, and national governments. Recently, his landmark advocacy published in Nature Food proposed that dietary fiber is an essential nutrient, a designation that would mark the first new essential nutrient in over 50 years.