RANZCP Foundation 2024 Masterclass: Cognition across the lifespan

Associate Professor Soumya Basu is a child and adolescent Psychiatrist. He has trained in both India and Australia and has more than 20 years of experience in psychiatry.

After doing a Diploma in Psychological Medicine (DPM) and MD in Psychiatry in India, he came to Australia and gained his Fellowship with RANZCP and is a member of the Faculty of Child and Adolescent. Dr Basu is a Clinical Associate Professor for the Department of Psychological Medicine at Monash University and is the coordinator of the child and adolescent post graduate training program. He has research interests in children of parents with mental illness, early intervention, developmental trauma and developmental disabilities including Autism, early psychosis and transcultural psychiatry. He has more than 40 research publications in peer reviewed journals. Several of his research papers have been presented in National and International conferences.

He is a consultant Child and Adolescent psychiatrist for the Early in Life Mental health services with Monash health, Melbourne. He is consultant in-charge of the Neurodevelopmental assessment unit and the Chair of Monash Neuro-Developmental Interdisciplinary Research. He is also the Director of Child Psychiatry of Victorian Institute of Mental Health, where he leads a multi-disciplinary team.

Professor Peter Nestor is conjoint Professor of neuroscience at the Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, and the Mater Hospital. He specialises in cognitive neurology, particularly focusing on early-stage Alzheimer's disease, atypical dementias such as primary progressive aphasias, and those related to Parkinson's and Lewy body diseases.

His work aims to inform differential diagnosis among neurodegenerative diseases, employing neuropsychological tests and multi-modal imaging techniques with MRI and PET. His research also investigates also aims to improve understanding of disease evolution, identifying biomarkers, and pioneering MR imaging techniques for more precise pathological diagnoses.

Richard Porter is Professor and head of the Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch and a Consultant Psychiatrist in a service for adults with intellectual disability. He trained in psychiatry in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne where his clinical training focussed on the treatment of resistant mood disorders.

Recently his research has focused on psychological and chronobiological treatments for mood disorders and treatments for neuropsychological impairment in depression and bipolar disorder. Events in Christchurch have also led to an interest in PTSD and the mental health effects of natural disasters and terrorism. He has published over 250 scientific papers. He is an author of the 2020 RANZCP Mood Disorder Guidelines and Deputy Editor of British Journal of Psychiatry Open.

Associate Professor Nicola Warren is a neuropsychiatrist, Queensland Director of Psychiatry Training, and the Mental Health Course Coordinator for the University of Queensland. She is the chair of the RANZCP Committee for Research and proud to be a member of the RANZCP Foundation Committee.