For the first five years after his medical qualification, Alexandre Kalache specialized in Tropical Medicine and in Medical Education. He then moved to England where, through his studies for the M.Sc. in Social Medicine, he established his interest in ageing issues. From 1978 to 1984, teaching at the University of Oxford, his main research activities were on cancer epidemiology – to include his PhD on Breast Cancer in Northeast Brazil - while maintaining his interest in ageing. From 1984 until 1995, Dr Kalache was chiefly based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where he established a unit on the Epidemiology of Ageing and launched a series of international short courses, which were subsequently adapted in several countries throughout the world. In parallel, he implemented a global research programme on a wide range of ageing-related issues with a particular focus on developing countries. Activities of this Programme emphasized the organization of health services; prevention and management of non-communicable diseases and promotion of healthy ageing interventions. While at the LSHTM he planned and coordinated the first Master’s degree course on Health Promotion. In 1995, Dr Kalache took up his position as Chief of the WHO’s Ageing and Health Programme. He is currently the Coordinator of the World Health Organization Ageing and Life Course Team.