Scientific Advisory Board
- DAVID BENNETT, MD Rush University Medical Center, Chairman
David A. Bennett, MD, is the Robert C. Borwell Professor of Neurological Sciences and director of the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center. Dr. Bennett received the degree of bachelor of science with high distinction and high honors in physiology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1979. He earned his doctorate in medicine from Rush Medical College in 1984. Following his medical internship, Dr. Bennett returned to Rush for residency training in neurology and a research fellowship in dementia, which he completed in 1989. Dr. Bennett is nationally known for his research regarding the causes, treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's disease and other neurologic conditions such as parkinsonism and cerebrovascular disease. His primary research interest is understanding how risk factors affect the brain to cause cognitive and motor impairment. Dr. Bennett is principal investigator of several studies funded by the National Institute on Aging, including the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Core Center, the Religious Orders Study and the Memory and Aging Project. He also directs the Regional Alzheimer's Disease Assistance Center for Northern Illinois for the Illinois Department of Public Health. He has more than 250 manuscript publications.
- HOWARD BERGMAN, MD McGill University
Howard Bergman MD is the first Dr. Joseph Kaufmann Professor of Geriatric Medicine and is Director of the Division of Geriatric Medicine at McGill University (www.med.mcgill.ca/geriatrics). Dr. Bergman is also Director of the Division of Geriatric Medicine of the Jewish General Hospital and an investigator at the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Community Studies and at the Bloomfield Centre for Research in Aging of the Lady Davis Institute at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal. He is also Adjunct Professor in the Department of Health Administration at the Université de Montréal and Invited Professor at both the Faculty of Medicine at the Université de Lausanne in Switzerland and the Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
In 2003, Dr. Bergman was appointed Scientific Director of the Quebec Network for Research in Aging funded by the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec (FRSQ) www.reseau-vieillissement.qc.ca. He is also Chair of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Ageing of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). He is President of the Canadian Geriatrics Society.
In the area of frailty and health services, Dr. Bergman is co-Director of Solidage: the McGill University/Université de Montréal Research Group on Integrated Services for Older Persons (www.solidage.ca). As well, Dr. Bergman presently leads a group of Canadian and international investigators in the Canadian Initiative on Frailty and Ageing (www.frail-fragile.ca).
In the area of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, Dr. Bergman’s research interests focus on early diagnosis. He is the founder and co-director of the Jewish General Hospital/McGill University Memory Clinic and is a Past President of the Consortium of Canadian Centres for Clinical Cognitive Research (C5R). Dr. Bergman serves as consultant to Regional Health Boards and provincial Ministries in Canada and other countries as well as to industry.
- JACOBO MINTZER, MD Medical University of South Carolina
Jacobo Mintzer is a Professor of Neurosciences and Psychiatry and Director of the Division of Translational Research in the Department of Neurosciences at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Mintzer received his medical training from Buenos Aires University, later specializing in Psychiatry at the Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Medicine in Jerusalem, Israel.
Dr. Mintzer’s research interests range from basic science to clinical therapeutics. His clinical interests are in his field of neurosciences, geriatric psychiatry and medicine, including: the psychopharmacology of Alzheimer’s disease; the behavioral management of agitated demented patients; memory disorders; and mental health in the elderly as a function of ethnicity. He is often invited to speak on such topics, and is widely published on these and other issues. He holds key positions of leadership in professional organizations in his field of geriatric psychiatry. Dr. Mintzer is a former member of the Board of Directors and served as Treasurer of the American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry; he served on the Council on Aging with the American Psychiatric Association; and is the current Treasurer-Elect of the International Psychogeriatric Association for 2007.