CIVIS webinar series: Challenges and solutions to ageing in place

Panayota Sourtzi

Panayota Sourtzi, RN, BSc, MSc, PhD. She is Professor in Occupational Health Nursing at the Faculty of Nursing, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She teaches occupational health in the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes as well as gerontology nursing, health education methodology and demography. She has published mainly in the fields of health promotion/education and occupational health. Her research interests include occupational and environmental health and nursing, health promotion of the working population, health promotion for older people and nursing education.

Petros Galanis

Petros Galanis, RN, BSc, MSc, PhD. He is an Assistant Professor in Research Methodology and Evidence-Based Nursing at the Faculty of Nursing, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and an expert in Epidemiology as well as director of the laboratory of clinical epidemiology. He teaches research methodology, epidemiology and prevention in both undergraduate level. He has published books in epidemiology and research methodology and his published research output is expensive in the fields he is working.

Sandra De Breucker

Sandra De Breucker, MD, PhD, Head of the Geriatric Department of the HUB (Hôpitaux Universitaires de Bruxelles). She is an Academic teacher of geriatrics (Master2) - aging semiology (Bachelor3) - Faculty of Medicine, Université Libre de Bruxelles. She is the President of the Master (3rd degree) of Geriatric Medicine specialty and the Secretary of the Belgian Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics.

Dr Adam Dobson

Dr Adam Dobson is interested in how gut microbiota and diet shape what animals do. The goal is an integrative view of microbes, diet, signalling, metabolism, and gene regulation, and to understand how those systems underpin phenotype. Dr Adam Dobson is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the University of Glasgow. He did his PhD at the University of Sheffield followed by postdocs at Cornell University and University College London and a fellowship at TU Dresden.

Benjamin Steinhilber

Benjamin Steinhilber is a postdoctoral research associate at and head of the research unit ‘Work-related Exposures – Work Design’ of the Institute of Occupational and Social Medicine and Health Services Research, Eberhard Karls University and University Hospital Tübingen, Germany. He received his PhD in Sports Science in 2013 from the Technical University of Chemnitz, Germany, and received his postdoctoral qualification (habilitation) in work physiology and ergonomics in 2020 at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany.

Monika A. Rieger

Monika A. Rieger is a professor of occupational and social medicine at the University of Tübingen and head of the Institute of Occupational and Social Medicine and Health Services Research, University Hospital Tübingen, Germany. She received her MD in medicine in 1995 at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and received her postdoctoral qualification (habilitation) in work physiology and occupational medicine in 2002 at the University of Wuppertal, Germany.

Gerhard W. Eschweiler

Gerhard W. Eschweiler, MD, has a broad medical and scientific education. In the last years, he has focused on old age psychiatry, in particular on the clinical and pathophysiological aspects of dementia, depression in old age, delirium in hospital. He is a senior physician in Psychiatry and medical head of the Geriatric Centre at the University Hospital Tübingen, cooperation of five hospitals. Furthermore, he was involved in projects to support caring relatives and in KRISTINA (EU project 2016-2018) to assist elderly people by means of expert systems. In the ongoing TUCAN project (BMBF Funding) digital cognitive assessments for Neuropsychiatric Disorders are developed and validated.

Manuel Collado

Manuel Collado leads the Stem Cells in Cancer and Aging Laboratory since 2012, at the Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela (IDIS). His scientific work is mainly focused on cancer, particularly on tumor suppression mechanisms and cell senescence. He has an extensive track record of publications, including the first in vivo description of oncogene-induced senescence in Nature; the identification of programmed cell senescence during embryo development; and the description of a new family of senolytic compounds (Nature Communications). He has been part of the steering committee of the International Cell Senescence Association since 2017.

Elena Solesio-Jofre

Elena Solesio-Jofre is a Senior post-doctoral fellow at the School of Psychology at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) in Spain. She earned her European PhD (Suma Cum Laude) in 2009 from the University Complutense of Madrid (Spain), with a thesis on Aging and Cognitive Neuroscience. Specifically, she examined cognitive and neural deficits in seniors, using brain imaging techniques. Along with a productive research career, she has extensive experience in teaching and mentoring students from different universities. Although she publishes widely in Geriatrics and Cognitive Neuroscience themed journals and books, she is also very active in public outreach activities.

Anastassia E. Kossioni

Anastassia E. Kossioni, DDS, MSc, PGCeODL, PhD, is Professor of Gerodontology at the Dental School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Greece. She obtained her DDS and PhD from the NKUA and her MSc in Gerodontology from the University of London. Her current research activity is related to gerodontology (geriatric dentistry), the association between oral and systemic health in older people, ageism in dental care, and interprofessional collaborative practice. She is Honorary Secretary of the European College of Gerodontology and Chair of its Education Committee, and Co-Chair of the Special Interest Group in Gerodontology at the European Geriatric Medicine Society.

Venetia-Sofia Velonaki

Venetia-Sofia Velonaki, RN, MSc, MML, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Nursing Ethics and Law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Nursing Department), Greece. She has expertise in community nursing and medical law. She has participated in many European, national and local research projects. She is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics and of the Organizing and Scientific Committee of several National Geriatric conferences in Greece. She has taught in geriatric master courses. Her research interests include health inequalities, vulnerable populations (ie older people), health literacy and bioethics.

Elizabeth Mestheneos

Dr. Elizabeth Mestheneos, a UK trained sociologist, moved to Greece in 1983, working in film production, subsequently from 1988 as an independent social researcher. See Research Gate for a list of over 50 articles on ageing and other subjects.

A co-founder of the NGO “50+ Hellas” in 2005 (see www.50plus.gr) she served as M.D. for 11 years; elected to the Board of AGE-Platform Europe, she was its President 2008-2011. She is active as advisor, juror, and evaluator on various EU funded projects concerning new technologies, accessibility, and the human rights of older people.

Dr Gillian Borland

Dr Gillian Borland is interested in mouse models of ageing and disease and currently investigating ageing and healthspan in an RNA Polymerase III knockout mouse model at the University of Glasgow. She has a PhD from the University of Strathclyde and extensive post-doc experience at the National Institute for Medical Research in London and at the University of Glasgow, working on the molecular basis of cell-cell interactions and mouse models of disease. 

Stéphane Baudry

Stéphane Baudry obtained an M.Sc. degree in physiology and biomechanics of human movements (2001) and his Ph.D. degree in motor sciences (2007). He received post-doctoral training in neurophysiology at the University of Colorado in Boulder (USA). He has a full professor position at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and is the director of the Laboratory of applied Biology and the Research Unit in Neurophysiology (LABNeuro) of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. His research focuses on the neuromuscular mechanisms that mediate the acute adjustments and chronic adaptations experienced by the neuromuscular system of humans, with special focuses on ageing and balance.

Thomas Heine

Thomas Heine heads the business unit “innovation infrastructures” at the State Competence Centre Digital Care and is involved in various (inter-)national activities and projects at the University of Tübingen in the field of Active & Healthy Ageing. Since 2005, he has been active in the areas of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), Demographic Change and Smart Living. He is member of different committees consulting the state of Baden-Württemberg. The focus of his scientific work is on linking participatory design, the use of technology as a useful toolkit and the transfer of knowledge into practice in the fields of living, health, care and digitalisation.

Laura Rueda-Delgado

Laura Rueda-Delgado has a joint PhD in Biomedical Sciences from KU Leuven and VU Amsterdam. During her PhD, she investigated the neural correlates of motor learning and how these are affected by ageing using electroencephalography. She has investigated the electrophysiological basis of adult ADHD, inhibitory control in neurotypical adults, and potential markers of mild cognitive impairment. Currently, she is a Marie Curie postdoctoral researcher at Cumulus Neuroscience, a Belfast and Dublin-based SME. In this project, she is developing a model to predict cognitive deficits in older adults from a large home-based EEG study.