Speakers
Invited Speakers
Awards
Young Investigator Encouragement Award
The Young Investigator Encouragement Award recognises work performed by trainees in the Asia and Oceania region and presented in a platform and/or poster session at the 13th Asian Oceanian Congress of Neurology and the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists Annual Scientific Meeting 2012.
Applicants for this Award must be under 35 years of age and are required to submit an abstract via online submission and select the Young Investigator Encouragement Award presentation preference to be considered for this Award.
Successful applicants will be eligible for a Travel Grant to assist with their travel costs to attend the Congress.
James W Lance Young Investigator Award
The James W Lance Young Investigator Award recognises work performed during pursuance of a higher degree and presented in a platform and/or poster session at the 13th Asian Oceanian Congress of Neurology and the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists Annual Scientific Meeting 2012.
Applicants for this Award must be current members of ANZAN. Applicants are required to submit an abstract via online submission and select the James Lance Young Investigator presentation preference to be considered for this Award.
James G McLeod Advanced Trainee Award
The James G McLeod Advanced Trainee Award recognises work performed during the clinical years of advanced training and presented in a platform and/or poster session at the 13th Asian Oceanian Congress of Neurology and the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists Annual Scientific Meeting 2012.
Applicants for this Award must be current members of ANZAN. Applicants are required to submit an abstract via online submission and select the James McLeod Advanced Trainee presentation preference to be considered for this Award.
Nadir Bharucha, India
Nadir Eddie Bharucha is Professor and Head, Department of Neurology at the Bombay Hospital Institute of Medical Sciences, Mumbai, India. He is a Consultant Neurologist at the Bombay Hospital and Medical Research Centre, the Children's Orthopedic Hospital and the Parsee General Hospital, Mumbai, India. He established the first Department of Neuroepidemiology in India in 1984, and he is Head, Department of Neuroepidemiology, Bombay Hospital.
Nadir Bharucha is currently the Vice President, Bombay Neurosciences Association, and the CME co-ordinator for the Indian Academy of Neurology. He has served as an executive committee member of the Indian Academy of Neurology. He has also been on the Scientific and Organising Committee of national and international congresses.
Nadir Bharucha was the recipient of the Dr. Baldev Singh Oration from the National Academy of Medial Sciences, India 2011, Wokhardt Medical Excellence Award from the Harvard Medical International in 2007, and Dr. A.D.Sehgal Oration from the Indian Epilepsy Association in 2006. In the past, he has served in the Commission on Burden of Epilepsy of the International League Against Epilepsy, and the Research Group on Neuroepidemiology of the World Federation of Neurology. He is also on the Editorial Board of Neuroepidemiology Journal, Case Reports in Neurology and an anonymous reviewer for Epilepsia.
Together with Dr. Bruce Schoenberg of NINCDS, NIH, Bethesda, he initiated community-based epidemiologic studies for the prevalence of neurological disorders, including stroke, movement disorders, epilepsy, peripheral neuropathy and multiple sclerosis in India. This protocol has subsequently been modified and used in various studies throughout India. Nadir Bharucha has authored over 150 peer-reviewed articles
Mohit Bhatt , India
Dr Mohit Bhatt graduated from Grant Medical College in Mumbai, India and subsequently obtained MD Medicine and DM Neurology from the University of Bombay. He completed his medical training by devoting 4 years in research in movement disorders at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada and subsequently at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square, London, UK.
At present Dr Bhatt is Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Grant Medical College and JJ Group of Hospitals in Mumbai, and Consultant and Head of Neurology at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and Medical Research Institute in Mumbai.
He started a lay society to help patients with Parkinson’s disease called the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation of India and it is the largest and the most active society to look after patients and their caregivers. He has been practising as a movement disorder consultant since 1992 in Mumbai and is known for introducing and popularizing this specialty in India.
Werner Hacke, Germany
Professor Hacke is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology at Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Germany.
He has BSc in Psychology 1972 (Dipl.-Psych., MD and PhD (Habilitation)His main research and clinical interests are Neurological Critical Care, Interventional Stroke Therapy, Stroke Prevention and Neuropsychology.
Professor Hacke is currently, Chairman, Steering Committee SPACE II, Member Executive Committee ROCKET AF, Co-Chair NEST III, Co Chair RIVER 3 and Chair Executive Committee ECASS 4
He was the founding President of the Europe Stroke Organization and is currently the first Vice President of the World Federation of Neurology.
Mark Hallett, USA
Dr. Hallett obtained his A.B. and M.D. at Harvard University, had his internship in Medicine at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and his Neurology training at
Massachusetts General Hospital. He had fellowships in neurophysiology at the NIH and in the Department of Neurology, Institute of Psychiatry in London, where he worked with C. David Marsden. Before coming to NIH in 1984, Dr. Hallett was the Chief of the Clinical Neurophysiology Laboratory at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He is currently Chief of the Medical Neurology Branch and Chief of its Human Motor Control Section. He is now Editor-in-Chief of World Neurology, the newsletter of the World Federation of Neurology and Associate Editor of Brain. He has been President of the Movement
Disorder Society and Vice-President of the American Academy of Neurology. Among many awards, in 2005 he won the Movement Disorder Research Award of the American
Academy of Neurology and in 2007 he won the Wilhelm-Erb-GedenkmÜnze of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fÜr Neurologie. His research activities focus on the physiology of human voluntary movement and its pathophysiology in disordered voluntary movement and involuntary movement.
Yi-ning Huang, China
Professor Yi-ning Huang is Chairman of the Department of Neurology, First Affiliated Hospital of the Peking University, Beijing, China. He was trained at Peking Union Medical University, graduating in 1987. From 1990 to 1991, Professor Huang attended Salpetiere Hospital in Paris, France for advanced study, while at the same time holding a position in the Department of Neurology at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, where he went on to hold the post of Professor. In 2003, Professor Huang accepted his current position at Peking University First Hospital.
Professor Huang is one of the top stroke neurologists in Asia. He pioneered the work on transcranial Doppler and intracranial atherosclerosis research in China. He has been a principal investigator for a range of studies covering areas such as transient ischaemic attack, cerebral arterial stenosis, atherosclerosis, and secondary prevention of stroke. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles, including Lancet Neurology, Stroke and Neurology etc. He is also the current Chairman of the Asia Stroke Advisory Panel.
Jianping Jia, China
Dr. Jia is the Director and a Professor in the Department of Neurology at Xuan Wu Hospital of the Capital Medical University. He is currently the Chairman of the Chinese Neurologist Association, President of the Neurology Committee of the Chinese Medical Association, and President of China Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Association.
Dr. Jia mainly served the clinical work in neurology. His department includes more than 110 neurologists and 150 nurses, with 200 beds and average 2000 outpatients per day. Dr Jia's research interests focus on mild cognitive impairment vascular cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer's disease. He published more than 562 papers in which 82 is Science Citation Indexed, and the rest is in Chinese, and 6 textbooks, and 12 medical books.
Ryuji Kaji, Japan
Dr. Ryuji Kaji is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology at Tokushima University, Graduate School of Medicine, Tokushima, Japan. He has been one of the Trustees of WFN since 2006.
Dr. Kaji received neurology and neurophysiology training (EMG) at the University of Pennsylvania and completed a movement disorders training course at the Kyoto University Hospital. His research interests have been focused on the study of pathophysiology, molecular genetics, and functional neuroanatomy of dystonia, especially those of lubag dystonia. As an electromyographer, he also developed a keen interest in motor neurone disease and recently published a paper on a new gene causing ALS (OPTN).
Jong S Kim, Korea
Jong S. Kim. MD, PhD is currently a Professor of Neurology, University of Ulsan, and the Director, Stroke Center, Asan Medical Center. He graduated from Seoul National University and once worked at the Stroke Center, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, USA. He has authored 12 books and published 345 peer reviewed research papers. He is the founding Editor of the Journal of Clinical Neurology and currently the Chief Editor of Korean Journal of Stroke and an Associate Editor of International Journal of Stroke, and Cerebrovascular Dis. Extra, and an editorial board member of Stroke, Cerebrovascular Diseases, Neurocritical Care and European Neurology.
Satoshi Kuwabara, Japan
Professor Kuwabara is currently Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology at Chiba University in Japan. Professor Kuwabara graduated from the Chiba University School of Medicine in 1984. He learned neurophysiology at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney from 1992-2000. His areas of expertise are neuroimmunology and clinical neurophysiology.
Professor Kuwabara is Associate Editor of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry; Editor of Internal Medicine (Official Journal of Japanese Association of Internal Medicine); and is on the Editorial Board of Clinical Neurophysiology Cochrane-Database Systematic Review, Chief reviewer of "Treatment for POEMS syndrome".
Ming Liu, China
Ming Liu is a Professor of Neurology and Deputy Director of the Department of Neurology at the West China Hospital, Sichuan University, China and is Deputy Director of the Chinese Cochrane Centre and Chinese Centre of Evidence Based Medicine. She graduated from West China School of Medicine, West China University of Medical Sciences. She was a visiting scholar in the Universities of Edinburgh, Oxford and London from 1995 to 1997. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the World Stroke Organization (WSO) and member of WHO Cerebrovascular Diseases Working Group. She is a Vice-President of the Chinese Stroke Society and a standing committee member of the Chinese Neurological Society. Her research work mainly related to clinical features of Chinese stroke patients, stroke register, randomized trials and systematic reviews of therapies from China, and stroke guideline development. She has published 190 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Her research work on stroke got the First Award of Ministry of Education in 2009 and CMWA Wuzhou Women Science & Technology Award in 2010.
Man Mohan Mehndiratta, India
Dr. Man Mohan Mehndiratta is currently Director-Professor in the Department of Neurology, G.B.Pant Hospital, Delhi University, New Delhi-India. He is a clinical neurologist and a researcher with teaching experience of more than 30 years.
He has published more than 150 scientific articles and chapters. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London, Glasgow and Edinburgh), Cochrane Neuromuscular Group, WHO fellow Critical Care Neurology, Indian Academy of Neurology and Indian College of Physicians.
He is a recipient of the Ambassador of Epilepsy Award, A.B.Baker Teacher Recognition Award AAN, Donald M. Palatucci Advocacy Advisor (2009) and Advocate (2008) of AAN, Netaji Oration Award and Prestigious Delhi State Award
He is currently President-Elect Indian Academy of Neurology, President-Indian Stroke Association, Secretary-General Asian Oceanian Association of Neurology and Co-Chair-Public Action Advocacy Task Force WFN
Teeratorn Pulkes, Thailand
Teeratorn Pulkes, originally from Bangkok, Thailand, graduated and did his Neurology training at the Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University. He then went to the UK to study for a diploma course in Neurology and PhD in Neurogenetics at the Institute of Neurology, Queen Square during 1997-2001. He was awarded the Pat Harris prize for the best candidate of the Diploma course in 1998. After training in the UK, he has worked as a lecturer and consultant neurologist at the Ramathibodi Hospital in Bangkok.
Dr. Pulkes currently is an Associate Professor in neurology. His research interest is on epidemiology and clinical aspects of neurogenetic diseases, genetics of Parkinson's disease and mitochondrial DNA disorders.
Kurupath Radhakrishnan, India
Professor Kurupath Radhakrishnan is currently the Director of the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, and In-Charge of the R. Madhavan Nayar Center for Comprehensive Epilepsy Care at Trivandrum, Kerala, India. He did Fellowships in Neuroepidemiology, EEG and Epilepsy at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA. Dr. Radhakrishnan is a Fellow in the Indian Academy of Medical Sciences and American Academy of Neurology, and a Member of the American Neurological Association. In addition, he is a Life Member of the Neurological Society of India, Indian Epilepsy Association, Indian Epilepsy Society and Indian Academy of Neurology. For additional information, visit http://www.sctimst.ac.in
Dr.Walter Struhal, Austria
Bio- Dr.Walter Struhal ( Chair, IWGYNT)
MD (*1976), neurologist, is heading the autonomic unit at the General Hospital of the City of Linz. In 2009 he has completed the sub-speciality education in neuro-intensive care and is consultant at the neuro-intensive care unit in Linz. Within the autonomic field, he has focused on various clinical aspects of autonomic cardiovascular evaluations (baroreceptor sensitivity, evaluation of intensive care patients) and software engineering of a self developed device. He is secretary of the Scientist Panel Autonomic nervous system disorders, EFNS, co-chair of the Task Force Autonomic nervous system of the Austrian Society of Neurology For the last decade, he has been dedicated to neurology training issues on a pan-European and international level. He was past-president of the European Association of Young Neurologists and Trainees (EAYNT), und currently chairs the International Working Group of Young Neurologists and Trainees (IWGYNT). He represents young neurologists within WFN in the education committee and website committee. He is a graduate of the American Academy of Neurology Donald M. Palatucci Advocacy Leadership Forum 2009.
Louis Tan, Singapore
Dr Louis Tan is a Senior Consultant Neurologist with the National Neuroscience Institute, Singapore (TTSH campus) and also the Co-Director of the Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Centre there. In 2006, the Centre received the distinction of being an International Centre of Excellence for the United States based National Parkinson Foundation (NPF) for Parkinson-related research, comprehensive care and community outreach. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore.
He is the President-elect of the Asian and Oceanian Section of the Movement Disorder Society. He is currently the Chair of the MDS Education Committee.
Upon graduating from the National University of Singapore and completing his neurology training at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, he underwent a movement disorders fellowship at the Parkinson's Institute in Sunnyvale, California.
His areas of specialty and research interests are Parkinson's disease and movement disorders. He is also interested in the epidemiology, clinical studies and clinical trials in Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders.
Dr. Surat Tanprawate , Thailand
Dr. Surat Tanprawate is a neurologist and lecturer, Northern Neuroscience Centre, Chiangmai University, and Secretary of Thai Headache Society, Thailand.
Surat trained in neurology in Thailand then completed a master's degree in clinical neurology, and a fellow with headache group, University College London, Queen Square, London. He is interested in the quality of life in primary headache disorder.
Surat is passionate about improving educational, training, networking opportunities for the young neurologists and trainees in the Asia Pacific region. He is regular speaker on headaches at various international meetings in the Asia Pacific region.
Surat is a member of the international working group of young neurologists and trainees ( IWGYNT), World Federation of Neurology.
Ching-Piao Tsai, Taiwan
Professor Ching-Piao Tsai is Section Chief of the Neurological Institute at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, and National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan. He is also Clinical Professor at the National Defense Medical School, Taiwan.
Prof. Tsai graduated with his MD degree from China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan. After successfully completing his internship and residency, Prof. Tsai went on to pursue his academic research interests as a Research Fellow in leading institutions overseas including: the University of Sydney, Australia, where he obtained his Master of Medicine degree; Virginia University, USA; and at Utano National Hospital, Kyoto, Japan.
To date, Prof. Tsai has contributed more than 60 peer-reviewed papers in the field of neuroscience to the international scientific and medical community.
Prof. Tsai is an office-bearer and member of many distinguished professional societies and organizations. He is President of the Asian and Oceanian Association of Neurology, as well as being Past President of the Taiwan Neurological Society, where he is currently Chief Supervisor and National Delegate.
Tim Anderson, New Zealand
Tim Anderson holds the Cas Van Der Veer Chair in Parkinson's and Movement Disorders at the University of Otago, Christchurch. He is based at the New Zealand Brain Research Institute. His clinical interests are in diagnosis and management of Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders. Research interests are in saccadic eye movements in health and neurodegenerative disorders - especially Parkinson's disease - and advanced MRI and cognition in Parkinson's disease.
Alan Barber, New Zealand
Professor Barber is a neurologist and stroke sub-specialist. He graduated from the Otago Medical School and completed his neurology training in Auckland, New Zealand in 1997. He received a PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2000. He returned to New Zealand in 2001 and has established a stroke unit at Auckland City Hospital. He was appointed the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand Professor of Clinical Neurology at The University of Auckland in 2008 and also Deputy Director of the Centre for Brain Research at The University of Auckland in 2009. He is the Honorary Medical Advisor, for the Stroke Foundation of New Zealand, Northern Region.
Samuel Berkovic, Australia
Sam Berkovic is Laureate Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne. He is a clinical neurologist and clinical researcher with strong basic science collaborations. His group, together with molecular genetic collaborators in Adelaide and Germany, discovered the first epilepsy gene in 1995 and subsequently have been involved in the discovery of many of the known epilepsy genes. This has changed the conceptualisation of the causes of epilepsy and is having a major impact on epilepsy research, and on strategies for diagnosis and development of new treatments. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (London) in 2007.
Helmut Butzkueven, Australia
H Butzkueven is joint director of the Multiple Sclerosis Service at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Director of the MS service at Box Hill Hospital, both in Melbourne, Australia. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne and Deputy Director of the Melbourne Brain Centre at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
The research interests of his group focus on two areas of Multiple Sclerosis Research.
In the Academic Centre's MS laboratory, the core focus is
-development of new biomarkers for axonal degeneration in MS
-understanding the effects of MS risk genes, in particular assessment of gene expression and splicing differences in patients with MS and healthy control subjects in areas of known genetic risk.
In the Melbourne Brain Centre at the Royal Melbourne Hospital,
H Butzkueven is the Chairman of the MSBase Foundation (www.msbase.org) providing a seminal contribution to this global online MS cohort study with more than 18700 patients enrolled (64 centres, 27 countries), and more than 100,000 years of patient follow up. Key current projects include development of methodologies for running comparative outcomes trials using registry data, and assessment and refinement of methods to detect disability progression in MS.
Stephen Davis, Australia
Professor Stephen Davis is the inaugural Professor of Translational Neuroscience at the University of Melbourne. He is based at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) where he is the Director of Neurosciences and Continuing Care, Director of Neurology and Director of the Melbourne Brain Centre (MBC) at the RMH. The MBC at RMH is funded by a Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) grant from the NHMRC.
Stephen is the President-Elect of the World Stroke Organization and Co-Chair of the World Stroke Academy. He is the immediate past-President of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists (ANZAN) and a past-President of the Stroke Society of Australasia. He was the first Co-chair of the Australasian Stroke Trials network and has extensive experience in stroke trials. He is the Co-Chair, with Geoffrey Donnan, of Neuroscience Trials Australia (NTA) and a trustee of the RMH Neuroscience Foundation since its formation in 1992.
Stephen was the 2011 recipient of the William Feinberg Award from the American Stroke Association and the Bethlehem Griffiths Research Foundation medal. He is the joint recipient of an NHMRC program grant in stroke, has co-authored 3 books, numerous book chapters, and over 300 peer-reviewed papers.
Stephen's major research interests involve clinical trials in stroke and the use of neuroimaging, particularly multimodal MRI, in the selection of acute stroke treatments. He is the Co-PI with Geoffrey Donnan of the EXTEND trial, a stroke trial aimed at extending the time window for thrombolysis using MRI in treatment selection.
Geoffrey A. Donnan, Australia
Director of Florey Neuroscience Institutes, Professor Geoffrey Donnan was also founding Director of the National Stroke Research Institute and Professor of Neurology, University of Melbourne, Austin Hospital campus. His research interest is clinical stroke management including imaging and clinical trials. He is a Past-President of the World Stroke Organisation. He received the American Stroke Association William Feinberg Award for Excellence in Clinical Stroke Research in 2007 and the 2008 Bethlehem Griffiths Research Foundation Medal for outstanding contributions to research in stroke.
Andrew Evans, Australia
Dr Andrew H. Evans FRACP, MD University of London, has appointments as the Director of the Movement Disorders Service, Department of Neurology, the Royal Melbourne Hospital, the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre and is an Honorary Senior Lecturer, Department of Medicine at The University of Melbourne. He has particular research and clinical expertise in the management of movement disorders, neuropsychiatric disorders and functional imaging of the brain.
Victor Fung, Australia
Dr Victor Fung is Clinical Associate Professor at Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney and Director of the Movement Disorders Unit and Co-Director of the Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Research Centre, Department of Neurology, Westmead Hospital. He is President of the Movement Disorder Society of Australia (MDSA) and serves on the International Executive Committee and is Co-Chair of the 2013 Sydney Congress Scientific Program Committee and Congress Local Organising Committee of the international Movement Disorder Society (MDS). He is Secretary of the Asian & Oceanian Section of the MDS and has previously served on its Education Committee. He is on the Editorial Board of Basal Ganglia and previously Movement Disorders. He serves on the Education Committee, World Federation of Neurology Parkinson's Disease Research Group and the Asia & Pacific Affairs Committee of ANZAN.
Matthew Kiernan, Australia
Matthew Kiernan is Professor of Neurology, University of New South Wales; Senior Scientist, Neuroscience Research Australia; and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry (BMJ Journals).
Professor Kiernan directs the Multidisciplinary Motor Neurone Disease Clinic at Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney and is a member of the Steering Committee that developed and launched the Australian Motor Neurone Disease Registry. Professor Kiernan is Chair, Scientific and Programme Committee for the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists and Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Australian Brain Foundation allocating funds to research and medical education for the treatment and prevention of neurological disorders.
Patrick Kwan, Australia
Professor Patrick Kwan is Chair of Neurology at the University of Melbourne, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Australia, and Associate Consultant at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong. He has published widely on the outcomes of epilepsy and pharmacology of antiepileptic drugs. His other research interests include the mechanisms of drug resistance, co-morbidities, genetics and pharmacogenomics of epilepsy. He serves on the editorial boards of a number of epilepsy journals. He is currently President of the Hong Kong Epilepsy Society, treasurer of the ILAE Commission on Therapeutic Strategies, and chair of the CAOA Research Task Force, and was chair of the task force for the definition of drug-resistant epilepsy.
Colin L Masters, Australia
Professor Masters has focused his career on research in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. His work over the last 35 years is widely acknowledged as having had a major influence on Alzheimer's disease research world-wide. This work has led to the continued development of novel diagnostics and therapeutic strategies.
Professor Masters is currently the Executive Director of the Mental Health Research Institute, and a Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne. He is the Chair of the NHMRC's Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee and a consultant at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. His achievements have been recognised by the receipt of many international awards - including the Potamkin Prize (1990), the Max Plank Research Award (1992), the Zülch Prize (1995), the King Faisal Prize (1996), the Alois Alzheimer Award (1998), the Lennox K Black Prize (2006), the Grand Hamdan Award (2006) and the Victoria Prize (2007).
Pamela McCombe, Australia
Professor McCombe is a graduate of the Medical School of the University of Queensland. She trained in Neurology with Professor JW Lance at Prince Henry/Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, and then obtained a PhD from the University of Sydney, under the supervision of Professor JD Pollard and Professor JG McLeod. This was the start of her interest in Neuroimmunology and Neuromuscular Disease. After a period of training at the Cleveland Clinic with Dr Asa Wilbourn she returned to the University of Queensland where she spent some years in full-time laboratory research as an NHMRC Senior research Fellow. She is now a Visiting Medical Officer at Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Professor of Medicine at the University of Queensland and Theme leader at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research. Her research interests are broad, and encompass autoimmune diseases of the nervous system as well as immune response to acquired diseases of the brain. Professor McCombe has published more than 100 peer reviewed scientific papers on topics including multiple sclerosis, inflammatory neuropathy, motor neurone disease and stroke. She also has a special interest in the role of gender and of pregnancy in neurological and immune disease.
Armin Mohamed, Australia
A/Professor Armin Mohamed obtained his medical degree from the University of Sydney in 1990 and trained in neurology in Sydney. He completed a two-year fellowship in epilepsy and neurophysiology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and another fellowship in PET. In 2001 he was appointed as the Director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Service and senior staff specialist in PET at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. His research interests include the application of PET to epilepsy, EEG signature image processing, development of dry electrode systems for EEG, the impact of epilepsy on memory and treatment of mood disorders in patients with epilepsy.
Terence O'Brien, Australia
Terence O'Brien (MBBS Melb. MD Melb. FRACP) is The James Stewart Professor of Medicine and Head of The Department of Medicine, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, and consultant neurologist at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Victoria, Australia. He leads a large translational research team undertaking both basic studies, involving animal models, and clinical studies. He is a specialist in neurology and clinical pharmacology, with particular expertise in epileptology, anti-epileptic drugs and in-vivo imaging in animal models and humans. He did his clinical and research training at St. Vincent's and Royal Melbourne Hospitals in Melbourne, and then the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA (1995-1998). He has published over 177 peer-reviewed original papers in leading neurological, pharmacological and imaging journals, 25 other publications and over 500 abstracts.
Rosemary Panelli, Australia
Dr Panelli has worked in the field of epilepsy since 1995. Her interest in epilepsy-related health policies and services led her to pursue a Master of Public Health and PhD. She served on the IBE Commission for Risks & Insurability and is currently acting chair of the IBE Research Task Force. She was a co-editor of Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy: a global conversation (2005, 2011) and was invited to participate in an international SUDEP workshop held in Washington in 2008. She currently co-ordinates Epilepsy Australia's Reducing Epilepsy Deaths project. In 2011 she received an IBE Ambassador for Epilepsy award.
Steve Reddel, Australia
Stephen Reddel is a staff specialist neurologist at Concord Repatriation & General Hospital Sydney, and consultant neurologist at the Brain & Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney. He trained in neurology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, and at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, and has a PhD in the immunology of the Anti-Phospholipid Syndrome.
He runs clinics in neuroimmunology, myasthenia gravis, neurogenetics, and other bits and pieces. He has research interests in myasthenia gravis, examining the function of anti-MuSK antibodies and the homeostasis of the neuromuscular junction; and in neurogenetics including the muscular dystrophies and inherited neuropathies.
Mike Salzberg, Australia
A/Prof Mike Salzberg is in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne and director of consultation-liaison psychiatry at St Vincent's Hospital. His interests are in psychiatric comorbidity in physical illness including epilepsy; in somatoform disorders; and in the connections between early life stress, its neurodevelopmental effects and its role in creating vulnerability to epilepsy in adult life.
Elsdon Storey, Australia
Professor Storey was appointed as Professor of Neuroscience at Monash University (Alfred Hospital campus), Director of the Van Cleef Roet Centre for Nervous Diseases, and Head of the Neurology Unit, Alfred Hospital in 1996. He commenced clinical neurology training in the UK and completed it in Melbourne, before undertaking postdoctoral studies in the neurochemistry of Huntington's disease at Massachusetts General Hospital, where his interests in neurogenetics and behavioural neurology were kindled. He returned to Australia in 1991 to work on Alzheimer's disease with Professor Colin Masters. He started neurogenetics clinics at RMH, St. Vincent's and the Alfred, and has been Neurologist to the Memory Clinic at Caulfield Hospital since 1997. He is Neurology Co-Editor of the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience.
Tissa Wijeratne, Australia
Dr Tissa Wijeratne is a Neurologist and the Director of the Stroke Unit, Neuroscience Research Unit, Movement disorders program at Western Hospital, Melbourne. Tissa is a Senior Lecturer in Medicine, Western Health Clinical School, University of Melbourne, Australia.
In 2010, Tissa joined the Education Committee, World Federation of Neurology to continue his work in the field of neurology education with his international colleagues from the rest of the world.
He sits in the national advocacy and policy committee, RACP, education and learning committee. He is also an examiner for the Physician's exam, RACP. He was also invited to sit on the public awareness and advocacy committee, World Federation of Neurology earlier this year.
He is a principal investigator for many international multi centre randomised clinical trials in Stroke and other neurological disorders at Western Health.
Bernard Yan, Australia
Bernard Yan currently holds dual clinical appointments at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) as Neurointerventionist and Neurologist. He is an Associate Professor of the University of Melbourne.
He is the current director of Telestroke Service at RMH.
His key administrative appointments include Chair of the Australasian Stroke Trials Network (ASTN), Treasurer of the Stroke Society of Australasia (SSA) and Council member of the Australia and New Zealand Society of Neurologists (ANZAN).
He is the founder of the University of Melbourne (UoM) Neurology Subspecialty Training Course (NSTC) in China. The training course has been operational since 2010 and is now in its second year. He is a research supervisor to research fellows from UoM Department of Medicine and also to overseas neurology research fellows from China.
He is the principal investigator and on the steering committee of major international stroke trials. He is on the steering committee of EXTEND (Extending the Time for Thrombolysis in Emergency Neurological Deficits), IMS 3 (Interventional Management of Stroke Study 3) and INSPIRE (International Stroke Perfusion Imaging Registry). He is also the principal investigator (Australia) of the Intra-arterial Plasmin for Ischaemic Stroke Study. His research interests include the development of novel devices for the treatment of acute stroke and aneurysms. He is the co-inventor of endovascular devices which have received NHMRC (National Health and Research Council, Australia) grants. A major focus of his research is in the translation of broadband technology to the delivery of telestroke services to rural areas (Telestroke Service).