Monica Mars

Monica Mars serves as Associate Professor at Wageningen University's Division of Human Nutrition and Health, where she specializes in understanding the relationship between food properties, eating behavior, and human health. After completing her Master's and PhD at Wageningen University, she has established herself as a leading researcher in nutritional science, focusing on the physiological mechanisms of food intake and satiation. Her research examines how non-nutritional properties like taste and texture influence eating behavior, with particular emphasis on oral and gastric physiology. As coordinator of Work Package 8 in the BigO project, she has helped gather data from over 20,000 children across multiple countries to study childhood obesity, demonstrating the potential of citizen science in nutrition research. She currently develops digital tools and novel approaches to measure eating behavior, including apps, sensors, and citizen science methodologies. Through her work on the "Basic Sensory Science" open textbook and involvement in various research projects, she aims to bridge the gap between food technology and nutrition research, ultimately helping people improve their eating behavior and quality of life. Her expertise spans from fundamental research on satiation mechanisms to practical applications in weight management and public health interventions.