ERA Committee

Outgoing Chair of Emerging Researchers Into Ageing Group (ERA):

Dr Arlind Reuter

Dr Arlind Reuter is a postdoctoral researcher at Lund University, Sweden. Her research aims to innovate the intersection of ageing and technology in civic spaces. Her interdisciplinary PhD in Gerontology and Human-Computer Interaction at Newcastle University explored digital citizenship in later life using participatory action research. 

As part of her research activism, she is a co-founder of the award-winning Later Life Audio and Radio Cooperative (LLARC), a growing international network of older radio producers, age-inclusive radio stations, third sector organisations, local authorities and researchers. LLARC aims to strengthen the visibility of older adults as creators of content and promotes diverse talk-based content on age and ageing.

Chair of Emerging Researchers Into Ageing Group (ERA):

Dr Junjie Huang

Dr. Junjie Huang is a Senior Architect and Design Consultant at the Dementia Services Development Centre (DSDC), University of Stirling. He provides design consultancy, environment audit and research support to age and dementia-related projects through the DSDC, and serves as a reviewer for a number of academic journals, e.g. Ageing & Society, Journal of Aging and Social Change, Health Environment Research and Design (HERD).

Junjie was trained as an Architect and holds a B.Arch. and a M.Arch. from Tsinghua University, China. Junjie worked as a Project Architect for two practice companies, and contributed to more than twelve architectural design consultancy projects across China, before he came to the UK and completed his PhD at the University of Sheffield. Since then, Junjie contributed to several large-scale interdisciplinary research projects relating to age-in-place and age-friendly environments, including ODESSA, AgeingHood and DesHCA.

Junjie’s research and practice focus on the exploration of human-environment relations, looking for new understandings that can inform future design implementations in architecture, urban and other broader design fields, to better support Healthy Ageing.

Incoming Chair of Emerging Researchers Into Ageing Group (ERA):

Dr Lisa Davison

Dr Lisa Davison holds MSc and PhD degrees in Gerontology which they completed at the University of Southampton. They currently work as a Quantitative Research Fellow at the University of Stirling on the Designing Homes for Healthy Cognitive Ageing (DesHCA) and Intersectional Stigma of Place-Based Ageing (ISPA) projects.

Their previous research has focused on the relationships between caregiving, loneliness, health, and wellbeing using English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) data, and between migration and pensions using a range of European data. Lisa’s current quantitative work focuses on exploring a variety of UK-based secondary data sources, including survey, cohort, and census data to examine the how the stigma attached to age, disability, and place intersect and they are using Scottish and English survey data to examine the risk profile of individuals in relation to future home adaptations and understanding how those adaptations impact health and wellbeing.

Mentor Coordinator of Emerging Researchers Into Ageing Group (ERA):

Dr Diana Teggi 

Dr Diana Teggi is a social gerontologist and Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Bath, UK. Her research interests include care work, end of life care and sexuality in old age. Her research blends Foucauldian and Marxist-feminist theory with ethnographic, interview and quantitative methods to investigate issues of medical intervention in care homes at the end-of-life. Her new research projects focus on intimacy and sexual health in care homes and among adults aged 60 and above. Diana has published in Social Science and Medicine, the book Deleuze and Guattari and Fascism edited by Rosi Braidotti and Rick Dolphijn (Edinburgh University Press, 2022) and the forthcoming flagship collection Death, Dying and Bereavement: New Sociological Perspectives (Routledge). Diana convenes the British Sociological Association (BSA) Death, Dying and Bereavement Study Group.

Treasurer of Emerging Researchers Into Ageing Group (ERA):

Christoph Heuser 

Christoph Heuser is a Teaching Fellow and Postgraduate Research Student in the Gerontology Department of the University of Southampton.  He joined the Department in 2020 when he started his PhD in Gerontology, focusing on depression and future-time perspective in later life. 

His previous training is as a geriatric nurse, securing a degree in nursing management (B.A.) and working from 2011 to 2016 as a nurse manager in a care home. He started his career as a lecturer in 2014 and completed his Master in Gerontology in 2018 from the University in Nuremberg. After the completion his masters, he worked as a teacher in a school for geriatric nurses. 

In addition to his role at the University of Southampton Department of Gerontology, he works as a guest lecturer for different Universities in Germany, focusing on Psychology of Ageing and Social Psychology. Additionally, he serves as a Book Review Editor for Ageing & Society and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

Committee Volunteer of Emerging Researchers Into Ageing Group (ERA):

Sam Toolan 

Sam Toolan is a part-time PhD student (due to complete in 2026) researching ways in which migration and settlement shape mental health concerning racially minoritised older women in the UK. In addition, Sam is: Head of External Engagement at The Open University; a Member of the Open University Centre for Ageing and Biographical Studies; a Trustee of Soumik Datta Arts, a charity that promotes diversity in the creative and cultural sector; and a Mentor for Homerton College at Cambridge University.

Secretary of Emerging Researchers Into Ageing Group (ERA):

Sena Odabas 

Sena Odabas graduated from Hacettepe University with both a bachelor's and master's degree in social work. She is a PhD student at Newcastle University. She began her PhD study in September 2022, and her research focuses on the connections between social exclusion and precarity among older women who live alone.

Committee Volunteer of Emerging Researchers Into Ageing Group (ERA):

Serena Salvi 

Serena Salvi is a Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher currently undertaking a dual role at Northumbria University (UK) as both a Research Fellow and a PhD student within the department of Business and Law. Her research focuses on the impact of self-ageism on older adults’ subjective sleep quality and how behavioural nudges can contribute to raise awareness towards poor sleep after the age of 60.

As part of her PhD, Serena has been a secondee within the Regional Sleep Service at the Royal Victoria Infirmary (UK) and within EU industry partners involved in the RISE-WELL project (Netherlands). She holds a MSc in Developmental Psychology from the University of Milano Bicocca (Italy).

Committee Volunteer of Emerging Researchers Into Ageing Group (ERA):

Dr Amy Prescott 

Further details to be confirmed.