Professor Tilakavati Karupaiah

School of BioSciences, Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences, Taylor’s University, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Prof Dr Tilakavati Karupaiah is Professor (Research) at the School of BioSciences, Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences, Taylor’s University. She was previously Professor and Head of the Dietetics Program, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Prof Karupaiah began her academic education in dietetics at undergraduate and Masters degree levels in India and later completed another Masters in biochemistry and a PhD in nutritional biochemistry specializing in lipid nutrition in Malaysia. Midway between these periods, she obtained an accreditation as practicing dietitian with the Dietitians Association of Australia. Her first position at a time when the scope of dietetics practice was limited to the food service area in the 1980s, was to design research diets to precisely achieve polyunsaturated to saturated fatty acid ratios for a human feeding trial.

Prof Karupaiah contributes extensively to research in the field of cardiometabolic, diabetes and renal nutrition which explore the rationale for nutritional guidelines, innovation in patient education, therapeutic approaches for muscle wasting, and prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as generating ethnic-based dietary evidence for cardiometabolic risk. Much of this research, builds knowledge for dissemination to patients and healthcarers, improve dietitian practice and shape national dietary guidelines in Malaysia. The conduct of this research through students purposively builds capacity for advanced practice in dietetics and pursuing academia.

In 2017, in recognition for the leadership, practice and research activity shown in the field of renal nutrition in Malaysia, Prof Karupaiah became the recipient of the Joel D Kopple International Award awarded by the United States National Kidney Foundation- Council on Renal Nutrition (NKF-CRN). She was the 1st Asian to win this award, for which beneficiaries have been nephrologists, dietitians or pharmacists. Since then, she has worked with colleagues to bring together the low-cost, high quality advanced level Global Renal Internet Course for Dietitians (GRID) administered by NKF-CRN as a capacity building initiative for the global lack of expertise in renal dietitians.

Prof Karupaiah supervises doctoral and master’s degree (by research) students in the areas of kidney, cardiovascular and food environment research, and adjudicated research degrees both nationally and internationally. She has reviewed for national and international funding bodies and served on the Evaluation Advisory Committee of the Global Food Studies Program at University of North Carolina and the International Advisory Group of the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics, United States.

Prof. Karupaiah is a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences (Malaysia), Malaysian Association for the Study of Obesity and the Malaysian Dietitians’ Association. She has published over ~120 peer-reviewed articles and contributed to 2 academic textbooks for undergraduates in the United States.

Updated 10 December 2025