Catie Chang is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, and Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University. Her research group, the Neuroimaging and Brain Dynamics Lab, seeks to advance understanding of human brain function through techniques for analyzing and interpreting neuroimaging data. She received her Ph.D. from Stanford University and was a postdoctoral fellow in the NIH Intramural Research Program.

Dr. Julian F. Thayer received his Ph.D. from New York University in psychophysiology with a minor in quantitative methods. Dr. Thayer is currently Distinguished University Professor of Psychological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine and the Ohio Eminent Scholar Professor in Health Psychology Emeritus and Academy Professor at The Ohio State University. He has also been a visiting professor at Sapienza University in Rome, the University of Bergen in Norway, and the Free University of Amsterdam, and a Research Fellow in Residence at the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University. He has published over 450 research papers and is one of the world’s leading experts on heart rate variability. Dr. Thayer has received numerous research awards including the Sigma Xi Research Recognition Award, the Early Career Award for Contributions to Psychosomatic Medicine from the American Psychosomatic Society, and distinguished scientist awards from the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, The Society for Psychophysiological Research, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, and the American Psychosomatic Society. From 2020 to 2022 he was identified by the Web of Science as a “Highly Cited Researcher”, a designation given to the top 0.1% of researchers.

Tony Wyss-Coray is the D. H. Chen Distinguished Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University, Associate Director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging, and the Director of the Stanford Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Biomarker Core. His lab studies brain aging and neurodegeneration with a focus on age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. The Wyss-Coray research team is following up on earlier discoveries which showed circulatory blood factors can modulate brain structure and function and factors from young organisms can rejuvenate old brains. These findings were voted 2nd place Breakthrough of the Year in 2014 by Science Magazine and presented in talks at Global TED, the World Economic Forum, Google Zeitgeist, and Tencent’s WE Summit in China. Wyss-Coray is the co-founder of Alkahest, a company developing plasma-based therapies to counter age-related diseases including Alzheimer’s. Current studies in his lab focus on understanding how the immune system and the organism as a whole age and communicate with the brain. Putting humans at the center of his studies Wyss-Coray integrates genetic, cell biology, and proteomics approaches and models them in the short-lived killifish and in mice. Ultimately, he tries to understand brain aging and disease at an individual level to develop tailored diagnostic and therapeutic tools.

Dr. Jessica Damoiseaux is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Gerontology and Department of Psychology at Wayne State University. Dr. Damoiseaux received her MSc in Psychology from Utrecht University and PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from VU University Amsterdam. She then went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. She currently heads the Connect Lab. Her research investigates individual differences in typical cognitive and brain aging, and early detection of neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Damoiseaux’s lab uses MRI-based neuroimaging, with an emphasis on brain network approaches, to examine brain aging. Current projects include: Brain changes in cognitively unimpaired older adults experiencing subjective cognitive decline; The effect of a 6-month yoga and aerobic exercise intervention on brain structure and function in older adults; Vascular and brain health in older adults exposed to prenatal undernutrition; and, The association between blood neurofilament light and neuroimaging markers of neurodegeneration.

: Claudine Gauthier is Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at Concordia University, and a Researcher at the Montreal Heart Institute. She obtained her PhD in Neuroscience at Université de Montréal on quantitative imaging of cerebrovascular and metabolic health in healthy aging, including the development of a calibrated fMRI framework for imaging baseline oxidative metabolism using MRI. Her postdoctoral work at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany focused on quantitative imaging using calibrated fMRI and quantitative susceptibility mapping at ultrahigh field with applications in learning-induced plasticity and stroke. She started the Quantitative Physiological Imaging lab at Concordia University in 2014, focusing on applications of calibrated fMRI and other quantitative measures of cerebral vascular and metabolic

Dr. Rong Zhang is Professor of Departments of Neurology and Internal Medicine/Cardiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Director of Cerebrovascular Laboratory at the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine Texas Health Resources Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. His lab has been funded by NIH and American Heart Association to study the impact of cardiovascular risk factors and exercise training on brain aging and Alzheimer disease over the last 20 years. Dr. Zhang and his team have published more than 150 research articles in cerebrovascular function and neuroimaging study of brain structure and function. Currently, he leads a large NIH trial to assess the effects of intensive treatment of systolic blood pressure on brain amyloid and tau deposition in older adults who have high risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (NCT05331144).

Dr. Jean Chen is Associate Professor in Medical Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto, director of the CRANIUM Lab at Baycrest and the Canada Research Chair in Neuroimaging of Aging. She received her MSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Calgary, her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from McGill University, and completed her postdoctoral training on multimodal MRI of brain aging at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard Medical School. Her lab's current research themes include: 1) Investigating the physiological basis of resting-state fMRI; 2) The development of new brain-mapping techniques to map vascular and neuronal health; 3) Multi-modal integration of functional, vascular and structural MRI techniques to study the mechanisms of brain aging and of age-related neurodegenerative diseases

I am a Professor and the Head of the Psychology Department in the School of Mind, Brain, and Behavior at the University of Arizona, and the Associate Director of the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute. Since 1998, I have directed the Cognition and Neuroimaging Laboratory which provides technical and analysis support for cognitive neuroscience researchers from across the campus utilizing MRI methods. My research focuses on memory, age-related memory decline, and the neural basis of memory utilizing various MRI methods including functional MRI, ASL perfusion, voxel-based morphometry, and high-resolution diffusion tensor imaging. My research on the neural basis of memory has focused on understanding the hippocampal processes mediating autobiographical and semantic memory, how memory changes across the adult lifespan, how those changes relate to brain structure and function, and the early prediction of Alzheimer’s Disease. I have a strong interest in the factors that influence individual trajectories of age-related cognitive function, in particular, cardiovascular health, exercise, and genetics. As a clinical neuropsychologist, I work with individuals and families who are coping with chronic and progressive diseases that affect cognitive functioning including multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease.

Christopher M. Filley, MD, FAAN, FANA, FANPA is Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry and Director of the Behavioral Neurology Section at the University of Colorado School of Medicine (UCSOM). A graduate of Williams College, he received his MD from Johns Hopkins University, trained in Neurology at UCSOM, and served a Behavioral Neurology fellowship at the Boston VA Hospital. Joining the UCSOM faculty in 1984 as the first behavioral neurologist in its history, Dr. Filley founded the University’s Behavioral Neurology Section in 1991. His interest is in brain-behavior relationships, particularly in white matter disorders, and in 1988 he introduced the concept of white matter dementia. Often listed in the Best Doctors of America and America’s Top Doctors, he has also received numerous teaching awards. From 2010-2017, he was Neurology Service Chief at the Denver VA Medical Center, and since then he has been Senior Scientific Advisor at the Marcus Institute for Brain Health. The author or co-author of over 175 papers, Dr. Filley has written three books: Neurobehavioral Anatomy, now in its third edition, The Behavioral Neurology of White Matter, now in its second edition, and White Matter Dementia. He is also senior editor of the textbook Behavioral Neurology & Neuropsychiatry.

Adam M. Brickman, PhD is a Professor of Neuropsychology in the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain and in the Department of Neurology at Columbia University. Dr. Brickman’s work focuses on understanding the vascular contributions to cognitive aging and Alzheimer’s disease by integrating neuroimaging and fluid biomarkers into observational studies, basic neuroscience, and epidemiological approaches. He is also interested understanding sources of racial and ethnic disparity in Alzheimer’ disease, developing interventions for cognitive aging, and designing neuropsychological instruments to assess cognition in older adults.

Dr. Brickman leads neuroimaging efforts in several large community- and clinic-based studies, such as the Washington Heights Inwood Columbia Aging Project (WHICAP), the WHICAP Offspring Study, and the Alzheimer’s Biomarker Consortium-Down Syndrome (ABC-DS). He is Associate Director of the Taub Institute at Columbia and the Deputy Director of the Columbia Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and directs its Biomarker Core. He has clinical expertise in cognitive aging, dementia, and neuropsychiatric disorders.

Dr. Brickman completed his undergraduate studies at Oberlin College, his PhD in neuropsychology at the City University of New York, his internship at Brown Medical School, and his postdoctoral training at Columbia University, where he has been on faculty since 2007.

Jennifer J. Heisz, Ph.D., is an expert in brain health and author of Move the Body, Heal the Mind. She is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Brain Health and Aging in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University where she directs the NeuroFit lab (www.neurofitlab.ca). Her award-winning research examines the effects of physical activity on brain function to promote mental health and cognition in young adults, older adults, and individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Meltzer is a Senior Scientist at the Rotman Research Institute of Baycrest Hospital, Associate Professor in the departments of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Toronto, and the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Interventional Cognitive Neuroscience. He did his Ph.D. at Yale University and a postdoctoral fellowship at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. His basic research deals with language representation in the brain, emphasizing the measurement and interpretation of the brain’s electrical activity through recordings of electromagnetic fields produced by neurons. His applied research includes treatment of stroke and dementia using behavioural therapy, pharmacology, and noninvasive brain stimulation. His work has helped to characterize neural oscillations in terms of their relevance for cognitive information processing and detection of pathology. Dr. Meltzer’s laboratory investigates novel technological approaches for improving treatment of post-stroke impairments, with an emphasis on practicality and scalability to at-home use. Relatedly, his lab seeks to understand the physiological mechanisms that underlie cognitive impairment and its remediation.

Sandra E Black, O.C., O.Ont., Hon.DSc., MD, FRCP(C), FRSC, FANA, FAHA, FAAN, Professor of Medicine (Neurology) at Sunnybrook HSC, U Toronto, is an internationally known cognitive and stroke neurologist, actively engaged in > 70 pharma trials in the last 3 decades. She has published >650 peer publications (+70 invited) (Google HI 132; >70,00 citations) in a research career bridging dementia and stroke, using standardized, quantitative neuroimaging, cognitive, functional and neuropsychiatric measures, genetics, and neuropathology to study brain-behavior relationships in the common dementias, with a focus on inter- relationships of Small Vessel Disease and neurodegeneration Recognitions include Fellowship, Royal Society of Canada, UofT’s Faculty of Medicine Dean’s Lifetime Achievement Award, an Honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Waterloo, the Distinguished Achievement Award of AAN’s Society of Cognitive and Behavioural Neurology, UBC’s 2022 Margolese Brain Disorders prize, recognizing Canadians who have made outstanding contributions to amelioration and treatment of brain disorders and the AAIC’s Bill Thies Distinguished Service Award (2022). She was appointed Member of the Order of Ontario (2011) and Officer in the Order of Canada in 2015 for her contributions to Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and vascular dementia.

Dr. Nicole Anderson is a Senior Scientist and Interim Executive Director of Scientific and Academic Affairs at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, and a Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis, and her Masters and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. She is also a registered clinical neuropsychologist, the Director of the Ben & Hilda Katz Interprofessional Research Centre in Geriatric and Dementia Care, and the Associate Scientific Director of the Kimel Family Centre for Brain Health and Wellness at Baycrest.

Dr. Anderson’s research focuses on memory, attention, and lifestyle dementia risk reduction interventions for healthy older adults and older adults with mild cognitive impairment. She has over 100 research papers and book chapters published in international journals on aging, cognition, and neuropsychology. In 2012, she published a book with two colleagues, Drs. Kelly Murphy and Angela Troyer, for the lay population called Living with Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Guide to Maximizing Brain Health and Reducing Risk of Dementia, of which they are currently working on the second edition.

Dr. Jean Chen is Associate Professor in Medical Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto, director of the CRANIUM Lab at Baycrest and the Canada Research Chair in Neuroimaging of Aging. She received her MSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Calgary, her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from McGill University, and completed her postdoctoral training on multimodal MRI of brain aging at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard Medical School. Her lab's current research themes include: 1) Investigating the physiological basis of resting-state fMRI; 2) The development of new brain-mapping techniques to map vascular and neuronal health; 3) Multi-modal integration of functional, vascular and structural MRI techniques to study the mechanisms of brain aging and of age-related neurodegenerative diseases

Dr. Meltzer is a Senior Scientist at the Rotman Research Institute of Baycrest Hospital, Associate Professor in the departments of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Toronto, and the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Interventional Cognitive Neuroscience. He did his Ph.D. at Yale University and a postdoctoral fellowship at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. His basic research deals with language representation in the brain, emphasizing the measurement and interpretation of the brain’s electrical activity through recordings of electromagnetic fields produced by neurons. His applied research includes treatment of stroke and dementia using behavioural therapy, pharmacology, and noninvasive brain stimulation. His work has helped to characterize neural oscillations in terms of their relevance for cognitive information processing and detection of pathology. Dr. Meltzer’s laboratory investigates novel technological approaches for improving treatment of post-stroke impairments, with an emphasis on practicality and scalability to at-home use. Relatedly, his lab seeks to understand the physiological mechanisms that underlie cognitive impairment and its remediation.