Member Profile: Daphne Wu
Global Representative Asia
SRD, PhD, AFHEA, IOC Dip. Sports Nutr.
Daphne with Prof. Louise Burke.
Daphne Wu, our Asia’s Global coordinator, was born in Hong Kong where sports nutrition is only starting to become recognized as a profession. She found her interest in exercise and sports nutrition when she practiced taekwondo at the University of Hong Kong. She noticed that many taekwondo players used improper weight making methods before competition. During her postgraduate study in Dietetics, she had already considered developing her career in sports nutrition. Daphne said “I feel the efficacy of dietary interventions on many diet related diseases are underrated here and these diseases might completely be treated by medication one day in future. The sports world may be the place to better demonstrate the importance of dietary intervention.”
After graduation, Daphne started her work in hospital and medical centres as a dietitian. She then completed her Masters degree in the area of glycaemic index and exercise performance under the supervision of Prof. Stephen Wong at the Chinese University of Hong Kong during her limited spare time. Afterwards, she taught nutrition, exercise and weight management in a school of continuing education while continuing her dietitian work. Daphne provided dietary consultation to apprentice jockeys and monitored their diets. She found that some of these adolescent athletes struggled with their body weight and had certain behaviours of disordered eating and worked with the other professionals to deal with these dietary problems. Daphne wanted to further explore the area of sports nutrition more and thus she took the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Diploma of Sports Nutrition. She was in the first batch of graduates. She still remembers director Ron Maughan mentioning at the graduation ceremony that the IOC course would have more upcoming graduates, but the first batch of graduates only happened once.
Prof. Ron Maughan and Dr. Susan Shirreff at the graduation ceremony of the IOC Diploma of Sports Nutrition.
After working for years, Daphne decided to pursue a doctoral degree. She said “It is a hard decision to quit the jobs and then go back to study full time. Besides providing dietary advice to special groups of people with dietary needs, I want to educate more people proactively.” Without giving up her interest in sports nutrition, Daphne turned her research interests towards the glycaemic index and exercise as well as cognitive performance under the supervision of Prof. Craig Williams and Prof. Jo Bowtell at the University of Exeter. She also took time to complete the Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Programme during her Ph.D. study and now is an Associate Fellow of Higher Education Academy. Daphne said there were many memorable moments and things besides study. The back-to-school period helped her become familiar with British foods and food cultures. She got involved in the London Olympic Games 2012 and has enjoyed meeting her IOC colleagues at scientific conferences.
Daphne is now working in a tertiary institution in China. She is teaching exercise related courses covering nutritional strategies for endurance and weight making exercises, nutrition, and food science. Moreover, she is supervising students regarding dietary intake of collegiate athletes before and after the Summer Universiade (World University Games), nutrition and health, and food security.
Role as a PINES Global coordinator.
As a global coordinator, Daphne wants to deliver more evidence-based nutrition information via PINES to professionals in China working in the fields of exercise and sports nutrition. Accessing information is challenging and build up the critical thinking skills to evaluate the massive amount of information over the internet takes time. She would also like to connect with others in Asia who share common foods and food cultures. PINES is grateful to Daphne for preparing the international food factsheet that will assist athletes and their sports nutritionists as they prepare for travel to China.
