Founders
Ester Cerin is an ARC Future Fellow and the Leader of the Behaviour, Environment and Cognition Research Programme at the Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research, Australian Catholic University. She also holds honorary professorial positions in the School of Public Health of the University of Hong Kong and Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute (Melbourne). Her background is in psychology and statistics. Over the past 15 years, Ester has extensively studied the effects of the built and social environment on physical activity behaviour and health globally.
Ester Cerin
Professor
She is also known for her expertise in sophisticated statistical methods for the analysis of environmental factors influencing health. In the last 5 years, Ester has been awarded 19 research grants totalling $16.8 million and published nearly 100 papers in prestigious scientific journals, including The Lancet, Journal of Clinical Oncology, BMJ, Pediatrics, Alzheimer’s & Dementia and the International Journal of Obesity. After spending time in the US, Europe and Hong Kong, Ester is dedicated about continuing her international collaborative efforts with other researchers passionate about how community environments affect health outcomes and the way people live.
Mark Nieuwenhuijsen is Director of the Urban Planning, Environment & Health Initiative at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, ISGlobal. He is a world leading expert in environment exposure assessment, epidemiology, and health risk/environment with a strong focus and interest on healthy urban living. Mark recently won the 2018 John Goldsmith Award recognising ‘sustained and outstanding contributions to the knowledge and practice of environmental epidemiology’.
Mark Nieuwenhuijsen
Professor
Kaarin Anstey is Director of the UNSW Ageing Futures Institute and Senior Principal Research Scientist at NeuRA. She leads an NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Cognitive Health, is a director of the NHMRC Dementia Centre for Research Collaboration and Co-Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research. Kaarin’s research programs focus on the causes, consequences and prevention of cognitive ageing, dementia, and common mental disorders in adulthood. A second focus is on older drivers’ risk assessment and safety.
Kaarin Anstey
Professor
Kaarin has worked extensively with longitudinal studies, and leads the PATH Through Life Project, a large cohort study focussing on common mental disorders and cognitive function, based in the ACT and surrounding regions. Kaarin is the Chair of the International Research Network on Dementia Prevention, a Director of the Board of the Dementia Australia Research Foundation, a member of the World Health Organisation Guideline Development Group cognitive decline and dementia, and a member of the Governance Committee of the Global Council on Brain Health, an initiative supported by the American Association of Retired Persons and AgeUK.
Anthony Barnett has expertise in the measurement of physical activity and the influence of the neighbourhood built environment on physical activity in older adults, as well as a current interest in the effect of the built environment on cognition. An exercise physiologist, he has worked with large older adult and adolescent built environment and health outcome data sets in Hong Kong, elite athletes (Queensland Academy of Sport) and older adults in Australia.
Anthony Barnett
Associate Professor
Anthony has published 43 peer-reviewed journal articles and 6 book chapters. He has been principal or co-investigator on 10 successful grant applications and has previously worked at Deakin University, University of Hong Kong, Baylor College of Medicine (USA), University of Queensland, The Nottingham Trent University (UK), University of New South Wales and Victoria University.