Mary Renfrew, Professor Emeritus at the University of Dundee, is a world-renowned researcher and leader in the fields of maternal and new-born care, infant feeding, and midwifery. The first midwife in the UK to gain a PhD, she has been a pioneer in establishing midwifery as an academic discipline, establishing high quality multidisciplinary research programmes and building capacity. In infant feeding, her work has spanned clinical studies, epidemiology, economics, large-scale behaviour change, and evidence-informed policy; she has challenged harmful practices such as the separation of mothers and babies, tested community-based interventions, published high-impact systematic reviews, and has had a formative impact on international and national policy and practice for decades.