Professor Wahlqvist was educated at Adelaide and Uppsala Universities. He is a Consultant Physician and has held chairs in Human Nutrition, Medicine, Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at Melbourne’s Deakin and Monash Universities. He has been Chair of Internal Medicine at Prince Henry’s Hospital, then of the Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne, as well as Director of the APHNC (Asia Pacific Health & Nutrition Centre) at the MAI (Monash Asia Institute) and of the FAO Centre of Excellence in Food Safety at Monash University. He has also held appointments at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, the University of Indonesia and Zhejiang University in China.
He was President of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS), Chair of the Australian Nutrition Foundation (Nutrition Australia), Foundation Chair of the WMCACA (Weight Management Code Administration Council of Australia), a Board member of ANZFA, the Australian and New Zealand Food Authority (now FSANZ), Foundation Chair of the Food Safety Council of Victoria, Chair of the Australian Academy of Science National Nutrition Committee, and Foundation Editor-in-Chief of the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition. His advisory board memberships have included the Harvest Plus program (International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington DC), the Riddet Food Research Institute at Massey University, New Zealand and the WHO Nutrition Advisory panel.
He has been recognised with awards by the nutrition societies in Australia, Britain, the USA, Taiwan, Indonesia and China. He was awarded the Charlotta Medal by the Swedish Emigrants Research Institute and made an honorary Bataknese.