Professor Bruno Vellas was born in 1957 in Toulouse, France and is currently Chairman of the Toulouse Gérontopôle, Chief of the Department of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at the Toulouse University Hospital, and Chief of Alzheimer’s Disease Clinical Research Centre, University of Toulouse. He is also member of the INSERM (National Institute of Medical Research) Unit558 on Aging. He is Principal investigator of the European Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium (EADC) and of other large international trials in the field of Alzheimer’s Disease. Professor Vellas obtained his medical degree (MD) and PhD from the University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, and for more than fifteen years now, he has been involved in many studies on Alzheimer's disease. Professor Vellas has published over 300 articles related to Alzheimer’s Disease and specially on disease modifying treatment. 

Professor Alain Franco was born in 1944 in Grenoble, France, and obtained his Medical Degree in Grenoble in 1974, while becoming a specialist in Internal Medicine in 1978. In 1982 he became professor of Internal medicine and Geriatric Medicine, a position he still holds, teaching geriatrics, gerontology and gerontechnology at the Joseph Fourier University, Grenoble 1. From 1989 to 2006 he chaired the Department of Geriatric and Community Medicine of CHU, Academic Hospital of Grenoble. As to research, in 1994 he founded the Grenoble Interuniversity Laboratory for Gerontology and has been directing it until 2007. From 1995 to 2000, he served in different scientific local, regional and European programs. From 2000, he served as President of the French Society for Geriatrics and Gerontology, until 2002.  From 2002 to 2008, he has been President of the College of French Geriatric Professionals, that he founded. Internationally, he was the European coordinator for the Tempus Program JEP 2762 (France, Italy, Romania) from 1992 to 1995, participated in the Tempus Program CME 01194 – 95 and ERBFMBICT 961325 (Telemedicine). He is a Board member of the European Union Geriatric Medicine Society (EUGMS) and served as ‘Observor’ at the GMS-UEMS for the French Geriatricians. He is the President of the French Society for Gerontechnology, SFTAG since 2006, and of the International Society for Gerontechnology, based in The Netherlands since 2008. Alain Franco has recently been asked to follow his Academic career moving in 2010 as a Professor to Nice’s University, France.

Professor Athanase Benetos was born in 1956 in Athens, Greece. He was a Research Fellow at Boston University, Boston (1984-1987) and obtained his PhD at the University of Paris VI (1994). He was a Senior Consultant in Hypertension, at Broussais Hospital in Paris (1988-2002) and an Associate Professor of Clinical Therapeutics, at University Paris VI (1992-1995). He became Research Director at INSERM (National Institute of Medical Research) (1996-2002) and Chief of the Epidemiology Department of the Medical Center “Investigations Préventives et Cliniques” (IPC) in Paris (1995-2002). 

Prof. Benetos is currently Senior Researcher at the INSERM (National Institute of Medical Research) and Chief of the University Center for Research and Education on Aging (Centre EFORVIE, University of Nancy).

Professor Benetos has been involved in different research programs related to biomarkers of aging, Telomere dynamics, epidemiology, genetics and treatment of the age-related changes of large arteries, the role of hypertension, heart rate and other risk factors on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. He presented 225 publications in international scientific journals with peer-review committee (Medline).

Dr. Renato Maia Guimarães is the President of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics for the term 2005 to 2009, and was the chair of the organizing committee of the 18^th World Congress of IAGG, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 26-30, 2005. He graduated in Medicine in 1975 and spent two years in the University of Birmingham, England, working under the supervision of Professor Bernard Isaacs. In Birmingham Dr. Maia Guimarães was deeply involved in research on falls in the elderly, and published with Professor Isaacs a pioneer paper on gait abnormalities related to falls.(Guimarães R M , Isaacs B. Characteristics of gait in old people who fall. Int. Rehab. Med, 1980; 2: 177-180.) His MSc. thesis was also based in the research in gait and falls.

On returning to Brazil Dr. Maia Guimarães developed the Health Program for the Elderly, for the Brazilian Ministry of Health. For five years he traveled all over the country as a consultant to local health authorities on the epidemiological transition and in the planning of health care for the elderly. During the time he was in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Maia Guimarães also created a program for health promotion ("Viva Bem a Idade que Você Tem") recognized as the most creative and efficient strategy for education of the elderly in Brazil so far. In 1991 Dr. Maia Guimarães took a position at the University Hospital of Universidade de Brasília, where he developed, and currently runs, the Medical Center for the Elderly, and he is also a professor of Geriatric Medicine. This Center has a geriatric outpatient clinic, a memory clinic, a psychogeriatric day hospital, a research center on physical activities for the elderly, and special services for Alzheimer's patients. The Ministry of Health has accredited it as a reference center for the elderly. Dr. Maia Guimarães was a member of the WHO Experts Panel in Health of the Elderly, and has been a consultant to the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) in education in Geriatrics. He is a co-author of the PAHO "Manual de Aspectos Clinicos del Adulto Mayor".

Dr. Maia Guimarães has been very active in the Brazilian Geriatrics and Gerontological Society, where he served two terms as president. He organized several congresses, including the XII Brazilian Congress of Geriatrics and Gerontology, the First Brazil-France Meeting in Geriatrics, and the VII forum of Geriatric Neuro-Psychiatry. He was a founding member of the Brazilian Association of Geriatric Neuro-Psychiatry and of the Brazilian Association for Alzheimer Disease (ABRAZ). He has been an IAGG council member since 1997. He is the author of "Sinais e Sintomas em Geriatria" which is widely recognized as a major textbook in Geriatrics written by a Brazilian specialist, now in its second edition. Dr. Maia Guimarães has published more than 40 papers and chapters of books, and has presented over 280 papers in scientific meetings in Brazil and abroad. In 2001 he was awarded a distinction for a research he conducted and published in the scientific journal of the Brasilia Medical Association ("Depression: the unrecognized morbidity in the elderly surgical patient"). Dr. Maia Guimarães is involved in community affairs and is often invited to deliver lectures on aging all over the country. His research interests are Alzheimer disease, depression and epidemiology of aging. Dr. Maia Guimarães also has a special interest in mechanisms of aging.

Professor Cha graduated in Sociology from the Seoul National University and obtained his PhD at Choong-Ang University in Korea and began his career in 1971 in the Government of the Republic of Korea as Junior Secretary to the Office of the President. He then became Director of the Social Welfare Department in the Health Insurance Department of the Ministry of Health and Welfare of the Republic of Korea. 

From 1976 to 1997, Professor Cha joined Hallym University, first as Professor of the Department of Social Welfare, then as Dean of the Social Science College and lastly as Vice President of the Establishment. Between 1997 and 1999, he chaired the Organizing Committee of IAGG’s 6^th Asia/Oceania Regional Congress held in Seoul and also became President of the National Pension Corporation of Korea.

In 1999, Prof. Cha became Minister of Health and Welfare of the Republic of Korea.

From 2003 to 2004, Prof. Cha was respectively Dean at the Graduate School of Social Welfare at Hallym University, President of the Korean Gerontological Society, President of the Federation of Korean Gerontological Societies, President of the Korean Academy of Social Welfare. In 2004, he was appointed Advisory Chair at the Presidential Committee on Aging and Future Society of The Republic of Korea and two years later Chair of the Ministerial Committee on Future Strategy of Health Care Security. He is currently President of the Korean Association for Vision of Aging Society.

Professor ABODERIN is a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute of Ageing, University of Oxford (OIA). She has extensive expertise in qualitative research and experience of quantitative analysis and survey design. Her research interests centre on three areas: social and life course determinants of health in old age, ageing and development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and intergenerational family support and social change in SSA.

University

• M.D. Catholic University of Leuven 1967
• Specialist in Internal Medicine KULeuven 1972, with interest in Geriatric Medicine
• Medical Director of St.Jozef Hospital, from 1980-1999; and from AZDamiaan from 1999 till now (One of the bigger teaching hospitals in Belgium).
• Official recognition as Geriatrician 2006
• Associate Professor KULeuven 1996
• Professor Benelux Universitair Centrum
• Invited Professor Université du Luxembourg 2006

Principal Scientific assignments

• Full member of the Belgian Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics (BSGG)1971
• Secretary General BSGG from 1977 till today.
• President BSGG 1981-1983
• President of the Prof.Hellemans Foundation for Research in Geriatric medicine from 1984 till today.
• Member of the Scientific Board of the “Stichting voor Psychogeriatrie”
• Full Overseas member of the British Geriatric Society 1981
• Member of the American Geriatric Association 1984
• Member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geriatrie e.V. 1985
• Secretary of the Clinical Section of the International Association of Gerontology – European Region 1999-2003
• Member of the advisory board “Revue de Gériatrie”
• Founding member and Treasurer of the European Union Geriatric medicine Society 2000.
• President of the Clinical Section of the International Association of Gerontology – European Region 2003- 2007
• Chair of the European Nutrition for Health alliance 2005-now
• Member (and former Vice-Chair) of the Belgian National Council of Hospitals

Medical activity

• Head of the department of Geriatric Medicine of the AZ Damiaan in Ostende from 1974 till today (now General Hospital DAMIAAN), with training of many trainees in Geriatric Medicine.

Topics of interests and research

• Rehabilitation Geriatric Patients
• Rehabilitation Stroke patients
• Rehabilitation Swallowing problems after stroke
• Financing Geriatric Care in Hospitals
• DRG’s and Geriatrics
• Regional Organization of the Care of the older persons
• Dementia
• Palliative Care
• Medications in Geriatric Care

Prof. Du Peng, Ph. D., graduated from the Renmin University of China in 1992. Currently he is the author or editor-in-chief of Disabled Persons in Rural China(2008), Population Ageing and Ageing Issues(2006), Population Ageing:Changes and Challenges(2006), Ageing Issues and Policies in European Union Countries(2000), Who will Provide for the Chinese Elderly(2000), Chinese Elderly in the Ageing Process (1996), The Process of Pupulation Ageing in China (1994), and the co‑author of Social Gerontology (1999), The Ageing of Population in China (1991). Prof. Du is also a board member of United Nations International Institute on Ageing, and HelpAge International.

Prof. Gomez is Chief of Research Group on Gerontology and Geriatrics and a member of the Geriatric Section of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Caldas in Manizales, Colombia. He has been an IAGG council member since 1996. He was the past president of Colombian Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics and past editor of the Colombian Geriatric and Gerontology Journal. He is the author of which is widely recognized as a major textbook in Geriatrics written by Colombian and Iberoamerican specialists: GERIATRIA: FUNDAMENTOS DE MEDICINA. Eds: Jorge Hernán López R. Carlos Alberto Cano G. José Fernando Gómez M. Corporación para Investigaciones Biológicas, 2006. He is co-author on the book, ‘Envejecimiento rural: El anciano en las zonas cafeteras colombianas ’ José Fernando Gómez M., Carmen Lucía Curcio B. Cuadernos de Investigación No. 3. Universidad de Caldas. 2004, which provided the first national profile of rural elderly in Colombia. He has published other two books related with geriatric assessment, more than 20 papers and chapters of books, and has presented over 40 papers in scientific meetings in Colombia and abroad.

Prof. Gomez is currently interested in researching falls, balance disorders and instability in the elderly with dizziness on the community-dwelling elders and institutionalized frail elders. Another areas of interest in researching are intercultural aspects of social support and fear of falling and activity restriction as consequence in rural areas in Andes Mountains.

Prof. Norah Keating is Chair of the North American Regional Committee of IAGG. She is Past President of the Canadian Association on Gerontology and served on its board of directors during the planning for the IAGG World Congress in Vancouver in 2001. She is involved in international in research and policy development and has had recent international research fellowships and consultations with the Centre for Social Policy Research and Development (Bangor, UK), The Centre for Social Gerontology (Keele, UK), University of Victoria (NZ), Taiwan Family Caregivers Association, and University of Heidelberg (Germany). Prof. Keating has been recognized for her contributions to health research by the award of Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.

Prof. Keating is a founding member and co-director of Research on Aging, Policies and Practice, University of Alberta which has an international group of co-investigators, collaborators, and policy and practice partners. RAPP is recognized for its research on unpaid work (caregiving, volunteer, and community engagement), ageing well, and community support to older adults; and for its impact on public policy related to population aging.

Prof. Keating often is invited to national and international conferences and policy meetings to discuss caregiving in Canada and community issues related to population aging. Author of more than 150 publications, Prof. Keating is the lead author on the book, ‘Eldercare in Canada’ which provided the first national profile of family and friend caregiving in Canada. She is known for her work on deconstructing assumptions about family/friend caregiving and often consults with government on caregiving policy. Her program of research also focuses on the contributions made by older adults in the voluntary, community and family/friend sectors. She is the editor of ‘Critical perspectives on rural ageing’ which addresses processes of aging in rural areas and considers older adults in the contexts of their social networks, the formal services sector, and their communities.

Prof. Keating is actively involved in mentorship of young scholars. She has supervised more than 40 postgraduate students, and has worked with postdoctoral fellows in her lab and elsewhere in her research networks. She has helped develop national and international student gerontology associations. Recently she received the Evelyn Shapiro Mentorship award from the Canadian Association on Gerontology in recognition of this work.