Alan Walker is an acknowledged expert on ageing in Europe and has been Professor of Social Policy at the University of Sheffield since 1985. His main research fields are social care, social gerontology and European social policy. He has conducted many studies within the EU about social exclusion and social integration, especially among older citizens.

He has a long-established international reputation for his research in social gerontology. His specialist subjects include comparative social policies on ageing (pensions, employment, long-term care) particularly within the European Union. He also has considerable research expertise on ageing in China and South-East Asia. He is President of the International Sociological Association's Research Committee on Ageing and an expert adviser to the UN's Programme on Ageing.

He chaired the European Commission's Observatory on Ageing and Older People and he is an adviser to the UN Programme on Ageing, and the House of Commons Health Committee. He is currently Director of the £3.5 million ESRC Growing Older Programme and of the UK National Collaboration on Ageing Research.

Professor Walker is Chairman of Community Health Sheffield NHS Trust and is a patron of the National Pensioners Convention.