Rate My Professor Sheryl Hendriks

Professor Sheryl L. Hendriks is Professor of Food Security and Director of the Natural Resources Institute within the Faculty of Engineering and Science at the University of Greenwich. She holds a BSc, BScHons, MSc, PhD, and is a Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf). Prior to her current roles, she held positions at the Universities of Pretoria, KwaZulu-Natal, and Natal in South Africa. An internationally recognised transdisciplinary researcher, Professor Hendriks focuses on food security policy analysis at national and global levels, food systems analysis including sustainable and healthy diets, and transdisciplinary solutions to complex global challenges. Her work examines tensions, trade-offs, and opportunities arising from climate change, COVID-19, conflict, and the interconnected crises of food, fodder, fuel, fertiliser, and finance, particularly their impacts on climate change, planetary boundaries, health, nutrition, affordability, and inequality. She possesses extensive experience in designing policy frameworks, nutrition-sensitive value chain analysis, resilience measurement, and food and nutrition security monitoring and evaluation.

Professor Hendriks has earned several prestigious awards, including the B2 rating as an internationally acclaimed researcher from the National Research Foundation of South Africa (2022–2027), the FR Tomlinson Commemorative Medal from the Association of Agricultural Economics of South Africa (2018), the Nils Westermark Award for the best-contributed poster paper at the International Agricultural Economics Association Conference (2006), and the Distinguished Teacher’s Award from the University of Natal (2003). Her influential publications include 'Governance and resilience as entry points for transforming food systems in the countdown to 2030' (Nature Food, 2025), 'The state of food systems worldwide in the countdown to 2030' (Nature Food, 2023), 'Full-cost accounting and redefining the cost of food: implications for agricultural economics research' (Agricultural Economics, 2023), 'The effect of land tenure across food security outcomes among smallholder farmers' (International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 2023), and contributions to 'Science and Innovations for Food Systems Transformation' (Springer, 2023). These works have advanced understanding of food security, sustainability, and policy impacts in agricultural economics.