Nicole Roy

Nicole Clémence Roy is a Canadian–New Zealand academic, and is a full professor at the University of Otago, specialising in nutrition and digestive health, including gastrointestinal physiology and microbiome–host interactions. She is a Fellow of Food Standards Australia New Zealand.

Academic career
Roy completed a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Science and a PhD all at Laval University. Her doctoral thesis was titled Protein Metabolism in Growing Barrows Fed Diets Adequate or Deficient in Lysine and was supervised by Jean F. Bernier. Roy did her postdoctoral research at the Rowett Institute in Scotland. Roy worked at AgResearch from 1998, and was appointed Principal Scientist in 2011. Roy was a professor in the Liggins Institute at the University of Auckland, and since 2016 is an adjunct professor in the Riddet Institute Centre of Research Excellence at Massey University. Roy joined the faculty of the Department of Nutrition at the University of Otago in 2020, and was appointed head of department in 2024.

Roy's research focuses on nutrition and gut health. She was a founding member of the High Value Nutrition National Science Challenge, based at the University of Auckland, and leads the Digestive Health research programme. Through this she is part of a team studying the effect of resistant starch additives to baby food on infant microbiomes, sleep and immune health. Roy has received funding from MBIE and Marsden grants, and in 2023 Roy received a grant from the Health Research Council to investigate associations between gut health, gut microbiomes and the Aotearoa New Zealand diet.

As a Fellow of Food Standards Australia New Zealand, Roy is one of 24 experts providing advice to the government agency.