Dean's Lecture Series 2011 - Happy and healthy ageing: paradox or possibility?

Ita Buttrose AO OBE facilitates this event featuring three pioneering scientists who are globally renowned speakers and command enormous respect in their fields - Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE, Professor David Sinclair and Professor Henry Brodaty AO.

It's one of our oldest dreams, to discover the fountain of youth, living to the age of 200! Experts say that it's not only possible, it's just a matter of time. Scientists are on the verge of understanding ageing and age related diseases. But in living longer and preventing age related diseases, what might the consequences be? Living longer -- how do we do it and what will we do with our time?

FACILITATOR

Ms Ita Buttrose AO OBE, publishing pioneer, journalist, author and businesswoman, has been a feature of Australian public life for more than 40 years.

She has had a long interest in health and ageing issues. She is the current President of Alzheimer's Australia, Vice President Emeritus of Arthritis Australia and patron of the Macular Degeneration Foundation of Australia.

SPEAKERS

Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE - scientist, entrepreneur, a TV star, best-selling author and expert on the human brain!

Susan Greenfield is Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford, where she leads a multi-disciplinary team investigating neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. In addition she is Director of the Oxford Centre for the Science of the Mind, exploring the physical basis of consciousness and was the Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain 1998 - 2010 (the first woman to hold that position).

Baroness Greenfield is also Director of the Institute for the Future of the Mind, part of the James Martin 21st Century School, which exploits the parallels between the brains of the very young and very old, and how they are all vulnerable to technology, chemical manipulation, and disease.

Professor David A. Sinclair -- internationally-recognised leader in the field of ageing!

Professor David Sinclair is Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, a conjoint Professor at the University of New South Wales in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Co-Director of the Glenn Laboratories for the Biological Mechanisms of Aging and a co-founder of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals.

Professor Sinclair has made key contributions to the scientific understanding of aging. In 1997, Dr. Sinclair identified the cause of aging in yeast, a first for any species, and in 2003 reported the discovery of a conserved master regulatory gene controlling this process. His laboratory at Harvard is currently focused on slowing diseases of aging in mammals using genetic and pharmacological means.

Professor Henry Brodaty AO - Australia's foremost expert in Alzheimer's disease and internationally recognised authority on ageing and dementia!

Henry Brodaty is Professor of Ageing and Mental Health and Director of the Dementia Collaborative Research Centre at the University of New South Wales and Director, Aged Care Psychiatry and Head of the Memory Disorders Clinic at Prince of Wales Hospital. He is past president of Alzheimer's Australia and Alzheimer's Australia NSW and past Chairman of Alzheimer's Disease International.

Professor Brodaty sits on several government committees concerned with ageing and with dementia and is currently leading the NSW Dementia Policy Team which has drafted the 2010-2015 Dementia Services Plan for NSW.