Meet the Speakers
26.10.2026
17:00
Can We Close the Sex Gap in Lifespan? An Evolutionary Comparative Perspective
Dr. Johanna Stärk, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
Johanna Stärk is an evolutionary demographer at the Department of Primate Behavior and Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
She completed her Master’s degree in Neurobiology and Behavior at Freie Universität Berlin and earned her PhD at the Max Planck Centre on the Biodemography of Ageing in Odense, Denmark.
Her research investigates the evolutionary origins of ageing across the tree of life, using demographic models to understand why species and sexes differ age differently. She examines how evolutionary constraints shape aging trajectories, how aging responds to environmental variation, and what distinguishes human aging from that of other species.
What Primates Societies
Reveal about Sex/Gender
Differences Relevant to
Human Health
Prof. Dr. Erica van de Waal, The Sense Center for Research and Innovation, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Erica van de Waal is Professor at the Sense Center for Research and Innovation and leads a long-term research program on wild primates in South Africa.
She completed her studies and PhD in Biology at the University of Neuchâtel and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of St Andrews before establishing her own research group in Switzerland.
She is the founder and director of the INKAWU Vervet Project, studying behaviour and cognition in wild vervet monkeys. Her research focuses on the evolution of sociality and the dominance between the sexes.
Sex and Gender in Pediatrics: Development Matters for Lifelong Health
Dr. med. Uchenna Kennedy, University Children's Hospital Zurich, CH
Dr. Kennedy is a Pediatric Surgeon and Urologist at the University Children's Hospital Zürich, with fellowship training in Zürich, Philadelphia (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, CHOP), and Cincinnati (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, CCHMC).
Her research focuses on variations of sex characteristics (VSC), urogynecology for girls and adolescents, and the role of sex and gender in pediatrics. She is actively involved in numerous teaching activities in this field at the University of Zurich and acts as lecturer of the CAS Sex- and Gender-specific Medicine.
From a clinical perspective, Dr. Kennedy established interprofessional clinics for variations of sex characteristics (VSC) and urogynecology at the University Children's Hospital Zürich and founded Varia Suisse (https://varia-suisse.ch/), a Swiss-wide transprofessional society supporting individuals with VSC and professionals in the field.