Speakers

International Speakers

Dr. Charles Morin
Charles M. Morin, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Sleep Research Center at Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada. He holds a Canada Research Chair on sleep disorders and is past President of the Canadian Sleep Society and Clinical section of the Canadian Psychological Association. He is a Deputy Editor for the journal SLEEP and Associate Editor for Behavioral Sleep Medicine. He serves on several advisory boards including for the World Association of Sleep Medicine (Member-at-large), Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine (Board of Directors) and the American Psychiatric Association (Work group revising sleep disorders diagnostic criteria for DSM-V). Professor Morin has published six books and over 200 articles and chapters on insomnia with a primary focus on psychological and behavioral approaches to treating insomnia.

Dr Raphael Heinzer
Dr Heinzer is the Medical Director of the Centre for Investigation and Research in Sleep and senior lecturer at University of Lausanne, Switzerland. In parallel with training in internal medicine and pulmonology, Dr. Heinzer began his specialization in sleep medicine in 1996 at the Stanford Sleep Clinic with Professor Guilleminault. He then had the opportunity to work with Prof. Jacques Montplaisir in Montreal and from 2003 to 2005 with Prof. David White at Harvard University. Returning to Switzerland in 2006, he opened the Centre for Investigation and Research in Sleep with Prof Mehdi Tafti at the University of Lausanne. His main research interests are sleep-disordered breathing, sleep in extreme conditions (high altitude, solo sailor, long-term solo flights) and the epidemiology of sleep disorders through the HypnoLaus Sleep Cohort. This population based cohort is one of the largest in this field including data on sleep, metabolic, cardiovascular and genetic characteristics of more than 5’000 individuals.

 

Professor Chris O’Donnell
Professor O’Donnell received his undergraduate training at the University of Otago, New Zealand, graduating with First Class Honors in Physiology. After continuing his education and training at Cambridge University and the University of California, San Francisco, his first faculty appointment was at Johns Hopkins Medical School before joining the University of Pittsburgh in 2004. He is currently a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine as well as a Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology. He has been funded by the NIH since 1996 and is past Chairman of the NIH Respiratory Integrative Biology and Translational Research (RIBT) study section and recently completed terms as Associate Editor of the journals Obesity and Journal of Applied Physiology. Professor O’Donnell’s research interests are in the pathophysiology of sleep apnea and its relationship to metabolic and cardiovascular dysfunction. He is currently studying the effect of intermittent hypoxia on cardiac function as well as the impact of heart failure on sleep and breathing. His metabolic focus is on the how varying regimens and durations of hypoxia affect insulin sensitivity.

Dr. Fernanda Almeida
Dr. Fernanda Almeida, Assistant Professor at UBC. She has recently been awarded the WW Wood Teaching Award for her outstanding contributions to the educational progress of the undergraduate dental students at UBC. Dr. Almeida received her Doctorate (PhD) at The University of British Columbia, both in the field of Dental Sleep Medicine. She also sees patients in a private practice restricted to the treatment of sleep disordered breathing. She has received the Pierre Robin Award from the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine (2011) and the Meier-Ewert Award from the German Dental Sleep Society (2012) for significant, original and sustained contributions evidenced by publications, and academic appointments and other efforts in the field of Dental Sleep Medicine. Dr. Almeida is currently the chair of the steering committee for a new initiative in dental sleep medicine: the Oral Appliance Network for Global Effectiveness (ORANGE Registry). This is a group of international expert researchers from 9 countries (14 centers) compiling long-term data on oral appliance therapy.She is also an associate editor for the journal Sleep & Breathing and is on the board of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.
 

Dr. Paul Macey
Paul Macey is an Assistant Professor in Residence at the UCLA School of Nursing. He completed his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, where he studied breathing and temperature in infants. His postdoctoral training was at UCLA in the Department of Neurobiology, where, using neuroimaging, he investigated brain function and structure in children and adults with sleep-disordered breathing. He is known for his work demonstrating brain changes in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), and linking these changes to physical and psychological symptoms in the sleep disorder. Dr. Macey is currently investigating sex variations in OSA-related brain injury, including changes that affect autonomic regulation, and how such changes develop over time. The aim is to understand both the causes and consequences of brain changes in OSA, and how best to treat patients with the sleep condition. In addition to his faculty roles, Dr. Macey is Associated Dean for Information Technology and Innovations, and Chief Innovation Officer in the UCLA School of Nursing.
 

Prof Ed Weaver

Prof Weaver is  Professor of Otolaryngology and the Chief of Sleep Surgery at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. He obtained his medical degree and completed his Otolaryngology Residency at Yale University.

After obtaining a Masters degree in Public Health (Health Services Research), Prof Weaver completed a Clinical Research Fellowship at the University of Washington. He is one of the few ENT surgeons to have U.S. board certification in both otolaryngology/head & neck surgery and in sleep medicine.

Professor Weaver is the Surgical Program Director of the University of Washington Sleep Disorders Center, the Associate Director of the University of Washington Comparative Effectiveness, Cost and Outcomes Research Center, the Chair of the Sleep Disorders Committee, American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery and the Chair of the Outcomes Research and Evidence - Based Medicine Subcommittee, American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery. In addition to leading an active clinical research program studying sleep apnoea, he is involved internationally in policy, research, and clinical activities in sleep surgery. Prof Weaver attended the 2011 ASA meeting and was very well-received by both ENT surgeons and sleep physicians.

Australian Speakers

A number of prominent Australian Speakers are being invited to present at this, the 25th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australasian Sleep Association and Australasian Technology, and to help celebrate this exciting event. Details will be provided shortly.