Dr. Ben Kirk, Ph.D is a a Senior Fellow and Clinical Exercise Physiologist at the Australian Institute for Musculoskeletal Science (AIMSS) and the Melbourne Medical School, where he is part of the Geroscience & Osteosarcopenia Research Group. Ben is an early-career clinical trialist with PhD completion in July 2019. His research program (+61 medical publications, H-index 30) focuses on the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of sarcopenia. This work includes publications in Nature Reviews Endocrinology, New England Journal of Medicine, Age and Ageing, and Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle.

Roles/Program

Ben also holds an honorary research appointment at Western Health-Sunshine Hospital, Division of Subacute and Aged care.

At AIMSS, he is an associate investigator on various research projects focusing on identifying the risk factors, pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatments for sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass and function) and osteosarcopenia (loss of bone density and muscle mass and function) to avert falls and fractures in older adults and geriatric patients.

Ben is CI/AI on 2.2M of grant funding for clinical trials from industry and governmental organisations. Ben’s work has been recognised with 12K in awards/prize money from scientific societies. In the past 5 years, he has been an invited speaker at 7 international scientific meetings. Ben has supervised 15 MDRS, 4 MSc and 2 PhD students to completion.

Ben was selected as the Global Young Representative for the Society of Sarcopenia, Cachexia and Muscle Wasting Disorders (SCWD); and invited to represent Australia on the Steering committee for the Global Leadership Initiative on Sarcopenia (GLIS). Ben led the world’s first global consensus definition for sarcopenia among experts from 55 countries across 7 continents. This initiative is informing a WHO-endorsed International Classification of Diseases code for Sarcopenia.