Keynote Speakers

Prof Shaun O’Keeffe

Dr. O'Keeffe is a Consultant Physician and Geriatrician in Galway University Hospitals since 2000 and an Honorary Personal Professor in the Department of Medicine at NUI Galway.  He graduated from University College Dublin and St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin and trained in Internal and Geriatric Medicine in Galway, Dublin, Boston and Liverpool.  Research interests include cognitive impairment, sleep disturbance and ethical issues in the care of older people

Prof. Dr. Shaun O’Keeffeis a consultant physician in Geriatric Medicine at Merlin Park Hospital Galway. He holds a clinical senior lecturer appointment with National University of Ireland, Galway. He has extensive experience and a special interest in Ethics and the Law as it applies to older people. He has a wide range of research publications. He held the position of Chairman of the Irish Society of Physicians in Geriatric Medicine (ISPGM) until 2013. He currently represents the ISPGM on the full board of the European Union Geriatric Medicine Society (EUGMS). He is an advisor to the Law Reform Commission of Ireland on issues relating to mental capacity of older people, including the preparation of the recently published report entitled ‘Vulnerable Adults and the Law’, which has a major influence on the preparation of the new Mental Health Act in Ireland (currently in draft stage, 2014

Prof Andrea Maier

After graduation in Medicine at the Medical University Lübeck (Germany) in 2003, Andrea Maier registered as specialist Internal Medicine-Geriatrician at the Leiden University Medical Centre (the Netherlands) in 2009. Contemporaneously she worked on translational research on ageing, defending her thesis on gerontopsychiatric-medical units in 2003 and on cellular senescence in 2008. Her research is driven by her passion to unravel ageing mechanisms and the interaction of ageing and age-related syndromes and diseases, which eventually leads to counteracting interventions. Her research group particularly focuses on sarcopenia and cellular senescence and its influence on age related diseases. She conducts several observational and intervention studies. In 2012 she was appointed as Head of the Section Gerontology and Geriatrics at the VU University Medical Centre and the Amsterdam Centre on Aging, Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and in March 2013 as full Professor of Medicine, particularly Gerontology. In February 2016 she was appointed as Professor of Ageing at the VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Since February 2016 she has worked at the Royal Melbourne Hospital as Divisional Director of Medicine and Community Care and as Professorial Fellow of Aged Care at the University of Melbourne, Australia.