Dr Brian Beach joined University College London (UCL) in July 2021 in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. His current work uses data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing collected during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on social connections and dementia.

Prior to UCL, Brian worked for eight years at the International Longevity Centre UK (ILC), where he conducted research on a range of topics related to population ageing, such as loneliness, serious illness, and retirement housing, with his main expertise related to employment in later life. He has worked in the field of ageing since 2006 and has been an active member on various strategic and advisory groups with universities, the voluntary sector, and government as they examine older people and the world of work. His engagement with the UK Parliament included three appearances before Select Committees, providing oral evidence on employment in later life and housing for older people.

Brian received his doctorate in 2016 from the University of Oxford, studying at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, where he explored how the concept of employability plays a role in the labour market behaviour of older workers in England and other European social policy contexts. Prior to this, he worked in the International Affairs office of AARP in Washington, DC, where he helped organise a number of international dialogues and conferences on issues related to population ageing. His work also included fostering AARP’s on-going collaboration with the United Nations Programme on Ageing, conducting outreach among the diplomatic and research communities.

Prior to his position at AARP, he completed the TransAtlantic Masters Program in Political Science through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and L’Università degli Studi di Siena, Italy. Through this programme, he gained extensive knowledge on European Union institutions, the process of European integration, and European welfare states. He speaks French and Italian, with varying competence in Danish, German, and Spanish.