PROFESSOR EMERITUS

Dr Philippe Robert is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry,  co-director of the CoBTeK (Cognition Behavior Technology) laboratory at Université Côte d’Azur. CoBTeK focuses on mental health from birth to end of life and artificial intelligence. He is also the scientific coordinator of the CreaPolis (Research, Education and Support Center Sophia Antipolis at the JL Noisiez Fondation). As clinician he was  ex-Director of the Memory and Research Center (CMRR)  at the CHU  Nice University Hospital.  His areas of expertise relate to behavioural symptoms, the assessment and treatment of apathy, and the use of art and technologies.

PSYCHOLOGIST

Christelle Filleau, psychologist specializing in neuropsychology.

Employed at the Nice University Hospital, France since 1987, she is involved in research projects, evaluation, monitoring and management of patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease or related syndromes.

RESEARCHER

Dr Alexandra König currently works at the Memory Clinic, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice, France at the Research Lab Cobtek (Cognition, Behaviour, Technology) at the University Côte d'azur and the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (INRIA), Sophia Antipolis. Alexandra does research in Neuropsychology, Geriatrics, Neurology and Psychiatry with a focus on the intersection with technology development and the use of Artificial Intelligence.

Her current projects are on the use of automatic speech analysis for assessing cognitive function and emotional disturbances in elderly people and the design of non-pharmacological interventions involving assistive technologies

THEORETICAL CHEMIST/PHYSIOLOGIST

I am revealing biomolecular mechanisms at spatial and temporal scales that remain difficult to observe experimentally, using numerical approaches. My research project is focused on the prediction of the odor, and/or the emotion induce by a molecule using its chemical structure as input. The long-term objective is to learn a computer how to smell.

As theoretical chemist, I am applying various methods of molecular modeling and chemoinformatic to investigate at the atomic scale the interactions between ligands and receptors. These researches are always conducted in the perspective of linking in sillico observations to in vitro or in vivo results.

As a physiologist, I am measuring human physiological variations induced by olfactory stimulations. These experiments are made to identify mood modulator.

PSYCHIATRIST

Dr Gary Cheung (PhD, FRANZCP, MBChB) is an academic old age psychiatrist. He currently holds a joint appointment between Auckland District Health Board as a community old age psychiatrist and the University of Auckland as an Associate Professor.

His research interests are centred on improving health outcomes and quality of life and care of older people living in aged residential care and community. He co-leads the translation and research of cognitive stimulation therapy (CST) for mild to moderate dementia in New Zealand.

MENTAL HEALTH NURSE

Emma is a registered mental health nurse who has specialised in dementia throughout her nursing career. She has worked in various settings, hospital, aged residential care and the community.

She currently works for Tu Ora as a Health Improvement Practitioner, based in a medical practice. In this role she continues to work with people living with dementia and their families as well as educating health professionals to become better at recognising and responding to changes in cognition. She has a particular interest in psychosocial supports for people affected by dementia.

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST

Tracey Hawkes is an Occupational Therapist with over 2 decades of clinical experience and a Dementia Educator at Canterbury District Health Board based in Christchurch, Canterbury, Aotearoa New Zealand. She facilitates the ‘Walking in another’s shoes’ dementia education programme for home-based support staff. Tracey also holds a role at Hohepa Canterbury.

Her focus is helping care staff to develop the confidence and person-centred tools to support older people to live more independent and fulfilled lives.

SPEECH LANGUAGE THERAPIST

Nikita graduated in 2023 with a Bachelor of Speech and Language Pathology(Hons), and is now a speech-language therapist currently working towards completion of her Masters of Science, specialising in speech and language sciences. She is currently working at Timaru Public Hospital covering a range of inpatient, outpatient, and domiciliary work to support the South Canterbury community. Nikita has a clinical interest in acute stroke and stroke recovery, and both facilitation and encouragement in utilising all methods of communication to support the stroke recovery process.

BIOSTATISTICIAN

I am a biostatistician and statistical researcher who has lectured in the Statistics Department since 2017. My work involves collaborating with clinicians, epidemiologists, and statisticians on clinically focused research, and I was awarded the New Zealand Statistical Association’s Worsley Early Career Research Award in 2018. I work extensively with health data from the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) and have a strong interest in mental-health applications, serving as the biostatistician for the LiDiA (Living with Dementia in Aotearoa) initiative. My research also focuses on developing valid statistical inference methods for complex and routinely collected data, including longitudinal analyses using survival models, mixed Cox models, GEE, and GLMM techniques.