Professor of Social Policy and Social Gerontology at the University of Sheffield, UK

Alan Walker (D.Litt., CBE, FBA, FASS, FGSA) is Professor of Social Policy and Social Gerontology at the University of Sheffield, UK. He has been researching and writing on aspects of ageing and social policy for more than 40 years and has published more than 30 books and over 300 scientific papers. He has also directed several major national and European research programmes and projects including MOPACT (www.mopact.group.shef.ac.uk), INNOVAGE (www.innovage.group.shef.ac.uk), The New Dynamics of Ageing Programme (www.newdynamics.group.shef.ac.uk), The Growing Older Programme (www.shef.ac.uk/uni/projects/gop/index.htm), the European Research Area in Ageing (www.shef.ac.uk/era-age/) and FUTURAGE (www.futurage.group.shef.ac.uk). In 2007 he was given Lifetime Achievement Awards by both the Social Policy Association and the British Society of Gerontology. In 2011 he was awarded the European Association of Gerontology’s first Medal and Honorary Diploma for Advances in Gerontology and Geriatrics (Social and Behavioural Sciences). He was the Economic and Social Research Councils’ first Impact Champion in 2013, was appointed CBE for Services to Social Science in 2014, and made a Fellow of the Gerontology Society of American in 2016.