Alexandre Kalache

Alexandre Kalache is a medical doctor, originally from Brazil , who studied for his MSc degree (Social Medicine) and PhD degree (Cancer Epidemiology) in England.  Currently, Dr. Kalache is a senior advisor to the president of the New York Academy of Medicine.

Since 1995 he acted as the Head of the Ageing and Life Course Programme (ALC) at the World Health Organization. ALC activities are designed to advance the state of knowledge about health care in older age and gerontology through dissemination of information, training and research efforts. ALC special focus is on the development of policies reflecting the 'WHO Active Ageing framework.'

Dr Kalache served as founder and head of the Epidemiology of Ageing Unit at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), where from 1984 to 1995, he launched a series of international short courses on the implications for Public Health of population ageing. These courses were subsequently replicated by several countries resulting in the establishment of global network of researchers under his coordination. While at the LSHTM, Dr Kalache was also responsible for setting up, in 1991, the first European MSc course on Health Promotion. The framework adopted for this initiative was subsequently used as a base for the development of the WHO Programme he now coordinates which is firmly centred on a healthy ageing/life course perspective.

From 1978 - 1984 Dr Kalache was a clinical lecturer at the Department of Community Health, Oxford University. In 1978 he was inducted as a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health, Royal College of Physicians, London.

Dr Kalache first became interested in ageing issues while studying for his Master of Science degree in Social Medicine at the University of London (1975‑1977). His PhD thesis (University of Oxford) was on breast cancer epidemiology.

Early in his career, after his medical graduation in Rio de Janeiro, his home town, Dr Kalache was an assistant lecturer in clinical medicine with a special interest on infectious diseases and on medical education.