Hazreen Abdul Majid

Professor Dr Hazreen Majid obtained his PhD from King’s College London and subsequently completed a fellowship attachment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he worked under the supervision of Professor Walter Willett’s research team. He has extensive experience as a specialist dietitian, having practised in tertiary acute care hospitals in both Kuala Lumpur and London, as well as in community healthcare settings in Liverpool. This diverse clinical and academic background has shaped his expertise in clinical nutrition, dietetics, public health, and translational research.

Professor Dr Majid is actively involved in both clinical and population health research. He currently runs a student led clinic that applies dietary approach in the management of patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and few other medical conditions. His research activities span clinical, epidemiological, and community-based studies, supported through collaborations with stakeholders at local, state, national, and international levels. Over the years, he has successfully established multidisciplinary partnerships and secured funding from a range of national and international agencies.

He serves as the Principal Investigator of the Malaysian Health and Adolescents Longitudinal Research Team Study (MyHeARTs), a major cohort study examining cardiovascular risk factors and health behaviours among Malaysian adolescents. Findings from this research have demonstrated that rural adolescents with unhealthy dietary patterns, particularly girls, experienced greater increases in body weight and body fat over time compared with boys. The MyHeARTs project has facilitated collaborations with numerous organisations, including the Ministry of Health Malaysia, UNICEF Kuala Lumpur, and the University of Bristol. Through support from the Newton Fund (MRC–ASM), his research team has conducted metabolomic analyses related to cardiovascular disease risk and developed MyHeART-BeAT, a school-based intervention targeting canteen operators to promote healthier food environments in Malaysian secondary schools.

Beyond adolescent health research, Professor Dr Majid has contributed significantly to studies investigating sodium intake and excretion among low-income urban populations, as well as the design and evaluation of lifestyle interventions for individuals at risk of non-communicable diseases. He completed research focused on population-level salt reduction strategies and serves as a co-investigator in studies exploring dietary intake and nutritional status among breast cancer survivors in Malaysia. His clinical nutrition research also remains highly active, particularly in critical care nutrition, with a growing focus on the nutritional rehabilitation and long-term recovery of intensive care unit (ICU) survivors.

An accomplished academic, Professor Dr Majid has authored two books, contributed to several book chapters, and published more than 150 articles in Web of Science-indexed journals. He has successfully supervised over 30 PhD students, reflecting his strong commitment to research training and capacity building. In recognition of his contributions to the profession, he was appointed a Fellow of the Malaysian Dietitians’ Association in 2022. He currently serves as Ethics Lead for the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Health Sciences University, while continuing to advance research in post-ICU nutritional rehabilitation. In addition, he holds an Honorary Professorship at the University of Malaya, further strengthening his engagement in international research and academic collaboration.