Dr. Carnes is interested in why organisms die, why they die when they do, and why they die of the things they do. To pursue these questions, he has melded his training in biology and statistics into an approach to research that he calls the biodemography of aging – a field of scientific study now recognized around the world. Dr. Carnes has used his biodemographic approach to reveal mathematical properties of the age pattern of death that are shared by all species, to identify factors that influence longevity as well as their relative importance, and to estimate upper limits for both the longevity of individuals and the life expectancy of populations. In an effort to reach beyond the scientific community, Dr Carnes has written a book for the general public, published articles in widely read magazines like Scientific American, given numerous interviews to National Public Radio as well as to local and national television networks, was the subject of a feature documentary on the Discovery Health channel that was based on his research, and gives talks on the science of aging at a variety of community venues. Dr Carnes hopes that his research will contribute to a better understanding of the health and mortality consequences of aging for both individuals and populations.

Helen Chung leads research and development initiatives in the fields of medicine and health care, both in-house and through collaboration with academic research units. Her current focus areas include the impact of developments in the prevention, detection and treatment of cancer on longevity. She has a multi-disciplinary background connecting medical and actuarial fields with health policy. She worked in the UK National Health Service for 7 years, most recently in the Centre for Health Technology Evaluation at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), and formerly as hospital clinician. At NICE she applied research to the development of evidence-based guidance on the clinical and cost effective use of medical technologies (predominantly biologics and pharmaceuticals, but also including devices, diagnostics and surgical procedures). She has also 4 years of experience in actuarial work, in the development of health insurance products at Munich Re and in employee benefits consulting at Aon.

Ms Chung qualified in medicine from the University of London. Her undergraduate studies included an intercalated year focused on medical research methodology, particularly in molecular oncology. Her post-graduate studies were in Health Policy Planning and Finance at the London School of Economics and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is qualified as an Associate of the Institute of Actuaries.

Michael Clark is a graduate of a six-year accelerated Bachelor of Science – MD program at Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and Albany Medical College. Following general medical and cardiology training, he went on to specialty training in echocardiography at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. He has worked at MetLife, Life Re and Swiss Re and is Past-President of the American Academy of Insurance Medicine.

Mr Clark is Board-certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and Insurance Medicine.

Michel Coleman qualified in medicine in Oxford and practised for 6 years in internal medicine, and briefly in general practice, before deserting to epidemiology. He has been Professor of Epidemiology and Vital Statistics at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine since 1995. He has been Deputy Chief Medical Statistician at the UK Office for National Statistics (1995-2004), and Head of the Cancer and Public Health Unit at the London School (1998-2003). Previously, he worked in the Cancer Epidemiology Unit in Oxford (1984-87), at WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon (1987-1991), and as Medical Director of the Thames Cancer Registry in London (1991-1995).

Mr Coleman's research has focused on time trends and socio-economic inequalities in cancer incidence, mortality and survival, and their application to improve public health policy for cancer control. He led the first worldwide analysis of cancer survival in 2008. He has been active in European cancer policy initiatives, and has been an advisor on cancer policy and research to governments and agencies in Europe and further afield.

Mr Coleman has taught epidemiology in a number of countries. He has been involved in the debates on confidentiality and cancer surveillance for 20 years, both in the UK and internationally.

James Creeden has been Chief Medical Officer for Roche Professional Diagnostics, the world's leading In Vitro Diagnostics manufacturer, since 2008. He holds a PhD in molecular toxicology from Rutgers University and an MD from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. After training in general medicine, Mr Creeden left clinical practice in 2002 to join Roche Pharmaceuticals Genetics and Integrated Medicines, where he worked on viral and host polymorphisms linked to response to antiretrovirals. He came to Basel in 2004 to work in epidemiology and health economics of personalised medicines, and joined the Diagnostics division in 2007. As Head of Medical and Scientific Affairs for Professional Diagnostics, his department is responsible for medical strategy and clinical development for their diagnostics solutions and companion diagnostic products. His current focus is transforming the IVD industry’s leading diagnostics technology company into the world’s leading diagnostics healthcare company through the generation of compelling clinical evidence.

Wayne Dam is a senior products actuary in Swiss Re's continental European team and also heads the experience studies team for that region. He is a fellow of both the Institute of Actuaries and the Actuarial Society of South Africa. The products team is responsible for the pricing of Swiss Re's Life and Health business in several continental European and Middle Eastern markets. The experience studies team is responsible for analysing the data that provides input towards the biometric assumptions for both pricing and reserving.

Previously Mr Dam was head of Swiss Re's African products actuarial and underwriting team based in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Mr Dam has over 20 years' industry experience of which over 8 are with Swiss Re. Previous roles include a product development role at Commercial Union, consulting actuary at a major South African consulting firm and partner of a stochastic modelling and valuation software firm.

Anders Dejgaard is a physician by training and is a certified specialist in endocrinology. He has worked at the Steno Diabetes Center for more than 4 years and has published more than 70 scientific articles including a doctoral thesis on Diabetic Autonomic neuropathy. Anders Dejgaard has worked at Novo Nordisk in many managerial roles for nearly 30 years, mainly within Drug Development including various international assignments. He has been involved in planning and executing drug development for more than 10 marketed drugs among which 3 have later become blockbusters. He has a profound knowledge of research and drug development within the Diabetes area and has also in-depth experience in development of devices used to inject biologic drugs.

Mr Hately has been one the leading proponents of the use of data to improve the customer journey when applying for life insurance. Since 2009 he has headed Swiss Re's team responsible for its automated underwriting tool, Magnum and its offers in predictive underwriting.

Mr Hately joined Swiss Re in 1999 in a UK marketing and strategy role. From 2004 to 2006 he was seconded to the Head Office in Zurich where he worked in the Group Strategy Team. Since 2006 he has been in a variety of roles focused on strategy and product development in life and health, based in London. From 1986 to 1999 he held several positions with the UK life arm of Zurich Financial Services prior to its merger with the financial services arm of British American Tobacco.

Mr Hately is graduate of the University of London in mathematics and statistics and a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in the UK.

Brian Ivanovic provides leadership and support to Swiss Re's North American Longevity Research & Development area and to Swiss Re's Global Life Applied Research team. He is a board certified family physician and epidemiologist, with 14 years of reinsurance industry experience. His team conducts insured lives research that assists Swiss Re in the establishment of pricing assumptions and in understanding emerging risk trends affecting health. His research has been published in the Journal of Insurance Medicine and North American Actuarial Journal and a number of Swiss Re’s client publications.

Prior to his insurance industry experiences Mr Ivanovic completed a Fellowship in Academic Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and spent six years teaching medical students in Des Moines and Milwaukee. He began his medical career as a Flight Surgeon in the US Air Force.

Gavin Jones is Senior Longevity Actuary at Swiss Re where he has worked for five years within the Chief Pricing Office in the researching, costing, acquisition and management of longevity risk.

Prior to joining Swiss Re Mr Jones worked at Prudential where he co-authored the SIAS paper "Financial Aspects of Longevity Risk". He is a Fellow of the Insititute of Actuaries and holds a PhD in mathematics from the University of Cambridge.

Koen Joosse is Director Professional and Public Affairs at Royal Philips Electronics in Amsterdam. In this role he is responsible for the development of stakeholder relations and thought leadership programs and deploying these across Philips’ global markets and businesses.

Previously roles were director at Philips Corporate Communications, responsible for corporate profiling and messaging, issues management and Board of Management speech writing, and before that he was a press officer, spokesman and chief editor at Philips Research.

Koen Joosse holds a PhD in physics from University of Twente in the Netherlands. He spent 10 years in academic and institutional research and industrial engineering before making a switch to corporate communications.

Mike Kelly originally graduated in Social Science from the University of York, holds a Masters degree in Sociology from the University of Leicester, and undertook his PhD in the Department of Psychiatry in the University of Dundee. Before joining NICE he was Director of Evidence and Guidance at the Health Development Agency. Mr Kelly has held posts at the Universities of Leicester, Dundee, Glasgow, Greenwich and Abertay. He now has an honorary chair in the Department of Public Health and Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London and is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health. Mr Kelly is a medical sociologist with research interests in evidence-based approaches to health improvement, methodological problems in public health research, evidence synthesis, coronary heart disease prevention, chronic illness, disability, physical activity, health inequalities, social identity and community involvement in health promotion.

Ilona Kickbusch is the Director of the Global Health Programme at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. She is the chair of Global Health Europe - a platform for European Commitment to Global Health and of the Consortium on Global Health Diplomacy. In Switzerland she serves on the executive board of the Careum Foundation and is the chairperson of the World Demography and Ageing Congress St. Gallen. She advises organisations, government agencies and the private sector on policies and strategies to promote health at the national, European and international level.

Ilona Kickbusch has published widely and is a member of a number of advisory boards in both the academic and the health policy arena. She has received many awards. She has worked in senior positions at the World Health Organisation and was Professor and Head of the Global Health Division at the School of Public Health at Yale University.

Tom Kirkwood's research is focused on the science of ageing and on understanding how genes as well as non-genetic factors, such as nutrition, influence longevity and health in old age. He chaired the UK Foresight Task Force on ‘Healthcare and Older People’ in 1995, led the project on ‘Mental Capital Through Life’ within the recent Foresight programme on Mental Capital and Well-Being, was Specialist Adviser to the House of Lords Science & Technology Select Committee inquiry into ‘Ageing: Scientific Aspects’ and has served on the Councils of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and of the Academy of Medical Sciences. He has published more than 300 scientific papers and won several international prizes for his research. His books include the award-winning ‘Time of Our Lives: The Science of Human Ageing’, ‘Chance, Development and Ageing’ (with Caleb Finch) and ‘The End of Age’ based on his BBC Reith Lectures in 2001.

Stephen Kramer is Head of Epidemiological Research in the Life & Health R&D department of Swiss Re, based in the firm's London office. He has worked extensively on projects dealing with the effects of infectious diseases and chronic diseases on demographic outcomes.

In South Africa he worked for Metropolitan Life and did extensive private consulting to companies and governments. He developed AIDS and demographic models for a number of African countries, was a member of a number of industry and professional organisations dealing with HIV, underwriting and insurability.

In the last few years, his work involved developing an epidemiological model to understand the range of mortality outcomes in the event of a new pandemic of influenza in a modern context. His most recent work in Swiss Re's R&D team is concerned with the understanding of the key disease-based drivers of longevity, both from the perspective of social epidemiology, and in terms of disease diagnosis, treatment and management.

Stefan Lichtenthaler is a biochemist and studies the molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease and related neurodegenerative disorders. The aim of his research is to understand the basic cellular mechanisms, which are responsible for the development of Alzheimer’s diseases, and to develop new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. Mr Lichtenthaler uses a variety of different experimental methods for his research, ranging from biochemistry and molecular biology to functional genomics and proteomics. Last year, he identified a long-sought enzyme, which has a central role in preventing the molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease.

Mr Lichtenthaler graduated from the University of Heidelberg. For his doctoral studies at the Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH) in Heidelberg, he joined Prof. Konrad Beyreuther, one of the founding fathers of modern Alzheimer’s disease research. After postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mr Lichtenthaler moved to the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU), where he headed a scientific junior research group. Since 2009 Mr Lichtenthaler is a faculty member of the Medical School of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU) and the head of a research department at the recently founded DZNE (German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases) in Munich. Besides his scientific research, he gives presentations on Alzheimer’s disease to the lay public and at trainings for the continuing medical education of medical doctors.

Before assuming her current responsibilities in January 2011, Alison Martin led the Global Life & Health Risk Transformation Team from 2006 to 2010. In this capacity, she has managed all of Swiss Re's life retrocession and ILS activities. Ms Martin started her career with Swiss Re's Life & Health Business Group in 2003. In 2005 she became Chief Financial Officer for Life & Health UK. Before joining Swiss Re, she was at PWC working with a range of insurance clients in audit, advisory and transaction related capacities.

Ms Martin, a British citizen born in 1974, attended the university of Birmingham from 1992 to 1995, studied Law and earned an LLB Honors degree. In 1998 she qualified with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales as an Associate of the Institute and in 2010 she completed the Chartered Financial Analyst IMC.

Christoph Nabholz is Head of Business Development at the Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue and additionally serves as Research & Development Manager to Swiss Re’s Life & Health Division.

As Head of Business Development he is responsible for the content of high-profile industry events held at the Centre for Global Dialogue, Swiss Re’s premiere conference facility. With his background in genetics he actively supports Swiss Re’s research on and development activities in medical trends and longevity.

Before joining the Centre, Mr Nabolz was Strategic Research Manager in Global Life & Health Underwriting and served as Swiss Re’s Global Genetics Consultant.

Prior to joining Swiss Re, he was a postdoctoral fellow in genomics and functional genetics with Prof. Tom Maniatis at Harvard University. He received a diploma in biochemistry from the University of Basel, Switzerland, and a Ph.D. with honours in molecular genetics from the University of Freiburg, Switzerland.

S. Jay Olshansky received his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Chicago in 1984. He is currently a Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Research Associate at the Center on Aging at the University of Chicago and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The focus of his research to date has been on estimates of the upper limits to human longevity, exploring the health and public policy implications associated with individual and population aging, forecasts of the size, survival, and age structure of the population, pursuit of the scientific means to slow aging in people (The Longevity Dividend), and global implications of the re-emergence of infectious and parasitic diseases. Jay Olshansky is the first author of The Quest for Immortality: Science at the Frontiers of Aging (Norton, 2001).

A graduate of the University of London in Physiology (1964) and Medicine (1967), Mr Rubens completed his postgraduate medical training at the Brompton, Hammersmith, Royal Marsden and St George's Hospitals. He then undertook research for a higher doctoral thesis on the augmentation of cytotoxic drug action and irradiation by antibodies directed to the cancer cell surface. In 1975, he was appointed Consultant Physician in Medical Oncology to Guy's Hospital London and was Professor of Clinical Oncology from 1985 to 2003.

He is a past-Chairman of the Breast Cancer Cooperative Group of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer and is past Editor-in-Chief of Cancer Treatment Reviews. Mr Rubens has been closely associated with the life assurance industry since 1977 and is Chief Medical Officer/ Global Medical Consultant to Swiss Re Life & Health and Legal & General Assurance Society. He is a past-president of the Assurance Medical Society.

Daniel Ryan is Head Life & Health R&D at Swiss Re, having joined in August 2010. He was previously Head of Mortality Consulting and Research at Towers Watson, and was the principal investigator for 8 years and founder of an innovative research group that addressed a wide range of key issues on mortality and morbidity.

Swiss Re has invested significantly in understanding future drivers to mortality and longevity, and Daniel leads a multi-disciplinary group that is focused on the development and evaluation of forward-looking scenarios based on prior history of disease or good health.

Daniel Ryan is a keen advocate of closer links between the actuarial and medical profession, and is a member of World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council for Ageing. He is also the Chair of the Technical Committee for the Life and Longevity Market Association, a non-profit venture to promote a liquid traded market in longevity and mortality risk that would assist pension funds that are interested in transferring risk to the wider capital markets.

Mr John Schoonbee graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1995. He performed his internship at Groote Schuur Hospital. After some years in private medical practice he joined the corporate world which included working at a company that specialized in corporate sick leave management in its own right, as well as the link to future short and long term disability. Pension and insurance related disability assessments were also a key part of the work there, including redesigning state disability practices and assessment formats in some of the key government departments in South Africa.

Mr Schoonbee then started his own consulting company focusing on sick leave and disability consulting, and while there he began to work for  RGA in South Africa in 2005. He eventually became Chief Medical Officer and Head of Research for RGA South Africa, involved in many functions across the organization, including claims, underwriting, marketing, training and presentations to both clients and across the industry. He did product development and marketing work for RGA in Europe as well as South East Asia and Australia. Mr Schoonbee initiated and successfully completed the 2010 RGA Claims Survey, a first of its kind in the South African market, and in his research role he also spearheaded the beginning of an industry wide accidental experience analysis at RGA.

Mr Schoonbee was secretary of the Medical Underwriting Standing Committee of the South African industry body ASISA (Association of Saving and Investment of South Africa), and a key part of the team that organized the 2010 ICLAM meeting in Cape Town, where he also presented. Mr Schoonbee began working at Swiss Re in July 2011 as Chief Medical Officer for Continental Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

Ajay Shah graduated from the University of Wales College of Medicine in 1982. His postgraduate doctoral training was undertaken with Dirk Brutsaert in Belgium and Andrew Henderson in Cardiff, his thesis being awarded with Distinction in 1990. Subsequent academic training included a British Heart Foundation Intermediate Fellowship, a period at the National Institutes of Health in the USA, and a Medical Research Council Senior Clinical Fellowship. He was appointed to the Chair of Cardiology at King's College London in 1998.

Mr Shah is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the European Society of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences, and a member of the Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland. He is the current Chairman of the European Society of Cardiology Working Group on Myocardial Function and the Chairman of the Basic Science section of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology (2006- ). He is on the editorial board of Heart , European Heart Journal , Cardiovascular Research, Journal of Molecular & Cellular Cardiology, European Journal of Heart Failure, Basic Research in Cardiology , Heart Lung & Circulation, and Heart & Vessels. He has also led the establishment of the annual Winter Congress on Translational Basic Science of the Heart Failure Association of the ESC.

A New Zealander, Kevin Somerville studied medicine at Auckland University. He moved to the UK to gain postgraduate medical experience and subsequently remained in the country. He has worked and trained in Medical Academic centres in Edinburgh, Nottingham (where he was a lecturer in Therapeutics and wrote his DM thesis) and Oxford. In Oxford he was Senior Registrar in Geratology to Professor Sir John Grimley Evans. In 1989 he was appointed Consultant Physician and Geriatrician to St Bartholomew’s Hospital in central London.

Since 1997 Dr Somerville has been Medical Consultant to Swiss Re, most recently as a member of the Global Life and Health Underwriting team based in London. During this time his role has expanded to include assisting Swiss Re with most aspects of life and health medical risks and product development. His current role bears particular reference to the medical aspects of underwriting and claims and includes developing an evidence-based approach to risk assessment. He is the International Affairs Editor of the Journal of Insurance Medicine and Past President of the Assurance Medical Society, and was chair of the first LUCID (Life Underwriters, Claims and Insurance Doctors) conference in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Lukas Steinmann has a Ph. D. in economics from the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He was research assistant in the area of health and insurance economics from 1999 to 2003. In 2003 he joined the major Swiss think tank, Avenir Suisse. There, in his role as project manager, he was responsible for demographic issues in the field of pension and health insurance.

Mr Steinmann joined Swiss Re in 2006 as a senior economist. His work has been published in various international journals. He has also written several books and co-authored the sigma studies “To your health: diagnosing the state of healthcare and the global private medical insurance industry” and "Innovative ways of financing retirement".

Florian Strasser is medical doctor with board certification in internal medicine, medical oncology and palliative medicine. He dedicates his work on clinical and research activities of integrated oncology and palliative care. His focus is on the development of clinical models to integrate oncology and palliative care in the primary and secondary sector. His work is also affiliated with international organizations such as the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), Multinational Association of Supportive Care and Cancer (MASCC), European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC), American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and International Association of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (IAHPC). In addition, his research is in oncological rehabilitation with a focus on cachexia and nutrition. He is the first oncologist in Switzerland with a Venia Legendi (Privatdozent) on specialist palliative care, awarded from the University of Bern.

Walter Weder is Professor of surgery and Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at the University Hospital in Zurich and co‐medical director of the University Hospital. He studied at the Medical School of the University of Zurich and at Stanford University and graduated in 1981. He became Thoracic Surgeon in 1989 after his surgical education at the University Hospital in Zurich and a Research Fellowship in Lung Transplantation at the Washington University (Joel D.Cooper), St. Louis, USA.

Mr Weder is member of many national and international Medical Societies, including the European Respiratory Society (ERS), the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), the European Society of Organ Transplantation (ESOT), the European Association for Cardio‐Thoracic Surgery (EACTS), the European Society for Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS), the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS), the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) and the European Surgical Association (ESA).

Mr Weder is also the former President (founding president) of the Swiss Society of Thoracic Surgery, and the former President of the European Society of Thoracic Surgery ESTS, and is actually member of the ESMO Guideline Committee and of the Educational Board of the IASLC. He has been member of the Editorial Boards of many International Journals.

In 1992, Mr Weder performed the first Lung Transplantation in Switzerland, and in 1994, the First Thoracoscopic Lung Volume Reduction Procedure worldwide. In the last years his research activity focused on thoracic malignancies especially malignant mesothelioma and lung cancer. He is an author of over 290 peer reviewed scientific publications.

Edward Whitehouse is head of pension policy analysis in the social policy division of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. He is lead author of the OECD’s flagship report on retirement-income systems, Pensions at a Glance. The fourth edition of this report was published in March 2011.

He also works in the pensions unit of the World Bank. He wrote the joint World Bank/OECD report, Pensions Panorama: Retirement-Income Systems in 53 countries, published in November 2006.  He has worked on pension reforms in many countries; most recently, Canada, Egypt and South Africa.

Previously, Edward Whitehouse was a leader writer and social affairs correspondent for the Financial Times and worked at the Institute for Fiscal Studies in London. He has taught at University College, London and Oxford University.  

Urs Widmer graduated from Zurich University Medical School in 1979. After postgraduate research work in a metabolic unit and a specialty degree in internal medicine (1988) he did research at the Rockefeller University, New York on the cloning of novel chemokines. After 13 years as an attending physician in internal medicine and consultant for clinical immunology at Zurich University Hospital he joined Swiss Re in 2005 as Senior Medical Officer.