Invited Speakers

 

The following exciting Keynote Speakers will be presenting at ISBNPA 2018:

 

Rejuvenation Biotechnology: Why Age May Soon Cease to Mean Aging

Dr. Aubrey de Grey (SENS Research Foundation)
Aubrey de Grey is a biomedical gerontologist based in Mountain View, California, USA, and is the Chief Science Officer of SENS Research Foundation, a California-based 501(c)(3) biomedical research charity that performs and funds laboratory research dedicated to combating the aging process. He is also VP of New Technology Discovery at AgeX Therapeutics, a biotechnology startup developing new therapies in the field of biomedical gerontology. In addition, he is Editor-in-Chief of Rejuvenation Research, the world’s highest-impact peer-reviewed journal focused on intervention in aging. He received his BA in computer science and Ph.D. in biology from the University of Cambridge. His research interests encompass the characterisation of all the types of self-inflicted cellular and molecular damage that constitute mammalian aging and the design of interventions to repair and/or obviate that damage. Dr. de Grey is a Fellow of both the Gerontological Society of America and the American Aging Association and sits on the editorial and scientific advisory boards of numerous journals and organisations. He is a highly sought-after speaker who gives 40-50 invited talks per year at scientific conferences, universities, companies in areas ranging from pharma to life insurance, and to the public.

Reshaping Food Systems for Health: Evidence and the Struggle for Real Change

Prof. Corinna Hawkes
Professor Corinna Hawkes is Director of the Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London, UK, a Centre dedicated to advancing the thinking and practice of integrated and inclusive food policy through education, research and outreach. Her expertise is in the development and design of food policies to support healthy diets, nutrition and public health throughout the food system. Corinna serves as Co-Chair of the Independent Expert Group of the Global Nutrition Report, an international report tracking progress in malnutrition in all its forms across the globe.  She co-chairs the Global Future Council on Food Security and Agriculture of the World Economic Forum, sits on the London Food Board, the EAT-Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems and the Lancet Commission on Obesity. She has worked with UN agencies, governments and NGOs locally, nationally and internationally to support the design of more effective food policies, including the World Health Organization, the International Food Policy Research Institute, the University of Sao Paulo and World Cancer Research Fund International, where she established the NOURISHING Framework which tracks policies to promote healthy eating worldwide.

Population Ageing and Systems Rethinking

Prof. Yeoh Eng Kiong (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Professor Yeoh is Professor of Public Health, Director at the JC School of Public Health and Primary Care of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and also Head of Division of Health System, Policy and Management at the JC School of Public Health and Primary Care. His research is in health systems, services and policy with an interest in applying systems thinking in studying how the complex components of health systems interact and interrelate to improve health. One current research commisioned by the HKSAR Government uses methods in system science for integration of health and social care for the elderly population. Prior to joining CUHK, Professor Yeoh was Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food of the HKSAR Government (1999-2004).  He was head & the first Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority (1990-1999). He was awarded JP and GBS by the HKSAR Government.

 

The following exciting Invited Mid-Career Researchers will be presenting at ISBNPA 2018:

 

Getting Workers to Stand Up, Sit Less, and Move More – From Research to Translation

Dr. Genevieve Healy (University of Queensland)
Genevieve is a Principal Research Fellow at the School of Public Health at the University of Queensland, Australia. Her research focuses on understanding how much we sit and how this influences our health and wellbeing, as well as the feasibility and acceptability of reducing this behavior in key settings, including the desk-based workplace. She has authored over 120 peer-reviewed publications, and her work has influenced policy and practice regarding the importance of reducing prolonged sitting time. Genevieve co-leads the Stand Up Australia program of research: a program which aims to investigate the benefits of reducing prolonged sitting time in the workplace, and includes multiple industry and government partner organizations. Over the past three years, she has lead the translation of the Stand Up Australia intervention into a national initiative – BeUpstanding. In partnership with key policy and practice partners, she is leading the national implementation trial of the BeUpstanding program. 

Is Cooking at Home the Silver Bullet?

Dr. Jean Adams (University of Cambridge)
Jean Adams is a senior university lecturer at the Centre for Diet & Activity Research, MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, UK. Her research focuses on dietary public health and population interventions to improve diets. She is currently involved in work evaluating soft drinks taxes in the UK and Barbados, exploring the role of home food preparation in people’s lives and diets, and determining the impact of supermarket commitments on ‘junk free’ checkouts.

 

Smartphones and Wearables: Health Promotion Across the 24 Hours

Dr. Matthew P. Buman (Arizona State University)
Matthew P. Buman, Ph.D., FACSM is an Associate Professor in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University. Dr. Buman’s research focuses on the dynamic interplay of sleep, sedentary, and more active behaviors, and how collectively these behaviors can be harnessed for health promotion and disease prevention. His work involves the assessment of behaviors across the 24 hours and innovative technology-supported interventions designed to singly or in combination improve behaviors across the 24 hours. Dr. Buman is currently the principal investigator of three large studies funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH); has authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles; is a standing member of the Psychosocial Risk & Disease Prevention (PRDP) NIH study section; and recently served as a Special Consultant to the 2018 US Health and Human Services Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Council.

Mobilizing the Business Sector to Apply Marketing and Choice-Architecture Strategies to Create Healthy and Sustainable Lifestyle Behaviors

Dr. Vivica I. Kraak (Virginia Tech)
Vivica I. Kraak, Ph.D., RDN is an Assistant Professor of Food and Nutrition Policy in the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. She has more than 25 years of professional experience to design, implement and evaluate population-based programs to promote healthy food environments and prevent diet-related, non-communicable diseases. Her current research focuses on evaluating government and corporate accountability for healthy and sustainable food environments. She is evaluating the Partnership for a Healthier America’s Fruits & Veggies (FNV) Campaign; examining the U.S. restaurant sectors’ use of comprehensive marketing-mix and choice-architecture strategies to create healthy food environments; exploring how U.S. food, beverage and restaurant businesses use celebrity marketing to promote branded food and beverage products to Americans; and developing an guidelines for government and civil society organizations to address conflicts of interest to decide whether and how to engage businesses to promote nutrition and public health policies and programs. She earned her Ph.D. in population health from Deakin University in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; an MS degree in nutritional sciences from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio; BS degree in nutritional sciences from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York; and completed her dietetic internship at the University Hospitals of Cleveland. Vivica has worked as a Research Fellow at Deakin University’s World Health Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention in Melbourne, Australia; the Nutrition and Physical Activity Advisor for Save the Children’s U.S. after-school obesity prevention program serving rural children in 12 states; and staffed several expert consensus committees convened by the Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine at The National Academies in Washington, DC. 

 

The following exciting Speakers will be presenting the Panel on "The Future of Ageing" at ISBNPA 2018:

 

Recent advances in the damage-repair approach to combating aging

Dr. Aubrey de Grey (SENS Research Foundation)
Aubrey de Grey is a biomedical gerontologist based in Mountain View, California, USA, and is the Chief Science Officer of SENS Research Foundation, a California-based 501(c)(3) biomedical research charity that performs and funds laboratory research dedicated to combating the aging process. He is also VP of New Technology Discovery at AgeX Therapeutics, a biotechnology startup developing new therapies in the field of biomedical gerontology. In addition, he is Editor-in-Chief of Rejuvenation Research, the world’s highest-impact peer-reviewed journal focused on intervention in aging. He received his BA in computer science and Ph.D. in biology from the University of Cambridge. His research interests encompass the characterisation of all the types of self-inflicted cellular and molecular damage that constitute mammalian aging and the design of interventions to repair and/or obviate that damage. Dr. de Grey is a Fellow of both the Gerontological Society of America and the American Aging Association and sits on the editorial and scientific advisory boards of numerous journals and organisations. He is a highly sought-after speaker who gives 40-50 invited talks per year at scientific conferences, universities, companies in areas ranging from pharma to life insurance, and to the public.

Meeting the Challenges of an International Aging Population: The Promise of Gerontechnology

Dr. William D. Kearns (Society for Gerontechnology)

William D. Kearns, Ph.D. is President of the International Society for Gerontechnology, which represents scientists and engineers from 26 nations engaged in developing technologies to support older adults living well and to a great age.  He is an Associate Editor for the society’s flagship journal, Gerontechnology.

Dr. Kearns earned his doctorate in 1989 from the University of South Florida before joining the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences, where he is an Associate Professor.  His research interest is in Gerontechnology movement surveillance and analysis, and cognitive prostheses supporting physical, social and community health of persons with disabilities, including dementia and traumatic brain injuries.  He has been the principal investigator or investigator on research grants funded by the US Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the US Department of Veterans Affairs, the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Ubisense Corporation in the UK.