BRAIN AGEING, DEMENTIA AND PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS
Professor Perminder S. Sachdev AM, MBBS, MD, PhD, FRANZCP, FAAHMS, Scientia Professor of Neuropsychiatry, UNSW Sydney & Co-director of the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), UNSW Sydney & Director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, Australia & Co-Director of the Australian Dementia Network (ADNeT) & Director of the Centre for Research Excellence in Vascular Contributions to Dementia (CRE VCD)
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Sydney, Australia | May 2026
Professor Perminder Sachdev graduated from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, in 1978 and completed his MD in Psychiatry there in 1983. Following time in New Zealand, he relocated to Australia, where he completed psychiatric training and a PhD at UNSW in 1991. His doctoral work examined ethnopsychological concepts in Māori culture. His early research focused on drug-induced movement disorders, including akathisia, tardive dyskinesia and neuroleptic malignant syndrome, while his later work has centred on dementia and pre-dementia syndromes, particularly neuroimaging, biomarkers and risk factors.
Professor Sachdev has held numerous leadership roles, including membership of the DSM-5 Neurocognitive Disorders Work Group, President of the International College of Geriatric Psychoneuropharmacology, and leadership positions within VASCOG, the International Neuropsychiatric Association, and the RANZCP Neuropsychiatry Section. He has also contributed extensively to Alzheimer’s Australia and Tourette syndrome advocacy.
His research interests span neuropsychiatric disorders of ageing, vascular and Alzheimer’s dementia, mild cognitive impairment, brain stimulation therapies, neuroimaging, Tourette syndrome and adult ADHD. In 2012, he co-founded CHeBA and leads major longitudinal studies, including the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study, alongside international consortia such as COSMIC, STROKOG and ICC-Dementia.
His achievements have been widely recognised, including appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia (2011), Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (2015), and recipient of the Ryman Prize (2022) for contributions to ageing research. He has also received the Lishman Oration Award (2024) and a Lifetime Achievement Award (2025).
Professor Sachdev has authored over 1,000 journal articles, multiple books, and a book of poetry.
Source: Supplied
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3421-4176
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Healthcare associated infection prevention
Professor Philip Russo is an internationally regarded expert in healthcare associated infection prevention, and led the recently completed the Australian National Healthcare Associated Infection Point Prevalence Survey, the first in Australia for 34 years. He is also Past President of the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control (ACIPC), the peak body for Infection Prevention and Control professionals in the Australasian region.
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Big data research in maternal, perinatal and renal health epidemiology
Dr Erandi Hewawasam is a Research Fellow at the National Perinatal Epidemiology and Statistics Unit within the Centre for Big Data Research in Health at University of New South Wales (UNSW). Her work focuses on maternal and reproductive health, chronic diseases (e.g., kidney disease, endometriosis), and early-life outcomes. She is the Program Manager for the Fertility Medicine Data Asset for Australia (FM-DATA), an MRFF-funded national infrastructure project linking fertility, hospital, Medicare, pharmaceutical, and perinatal datasets covering more than 40 million individuals. She also coordinates the Early Life Course Platform, integrating around 20 New South Wales and Australian federal administrative datasets to support population health research.
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Investigating new approaches to target plaque inflammation in atherosclerosis
Associate Professor Peter Psaltis is an Academic Interventional Cardiologist who holds Level 2 NHMRC Career Development and National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowships. He has Faculty positions within the University of Adelaide, Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN) and South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). Within SAHMRI, he is the Co-Theme Leader of the Lifelong Health, Program Leader of Heart and Vascular Health and Co-director of the Vascular Research Centre in the Lifelong Health Theme.
