Professor David Ames (BA, MD, FRCPsych, FRANZCP) graduated MB BS from the University of Melbourne in 1978 and trained in psychiatry at the Royal Melbourne (Australia) and Royal Free (London, UK) Hospitals (1982–7). His doctoral thesis was on the topic of depression in aged care homes. He was University of Melbourne Senior Lecturer (1989–1994), Associate Professor (1995–2005) and Professor of Psychiatry of Old Age (2005–2007), before taking up the post of Professor of Ageing and Health and Director of the National Ageing Research Institute in September 2007. He has extensive clinical experience in old age psychiatry and was director of the St Vincent's Health Aged Psychiatry Service from 2005 to 2008. David Ames has also edited the peer-reviewed Cambridge University Press journal International Psychogeriatrics (2003–2011). He has published over 145 peer-reviewed papers in academic journals and has co-edited or written 17 books. His main research interests are the early detection and treatment of Alzheimer's disease and the care of the depressed elderly.