In April 2022, we welcomed renowned paediatrician, developmental scientist and Distinguished Professor at UC Berkeley, Ronald E.Dahl to host a one hour event summarising the emerging evidence from scientific study on adolescent development, with an emphasis on the implications for education, health and social policies spanning the second decade of life.

Just as we now understand how early brain plasticity creates unique windows of opportunity for learning and development during the first few years of life, there is growing evidence for neuroplasticity extending well into adolescence. Beginning at about the age of 10, there appears to be a sensitive period for social and emotional learning relevant to identity development.

Featured in a report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in the U.S. in 2019, there is a growing understanding of how these developmental changes in adolescence provide us with actionable insights which can inform practices and policies for supporting our youth. This event summarised the key aspects of this research and set the stage for a group discussion about how these scientific insights can inform pragmatic changes relevant to promoting effective education, emotional well-being, and economic and social success.

About the Speaker

Ron Dahl is a paediatrician and developmental scientist with a long history of interdisciplinary team research with the goal of improving the lives of children and adolescents. His research has ranged from basic studies of neurobiological and psychological development, clinical studies in paediatrics and child psychiatry, to consideration of the social, family, and cultural contexts that shape neurobehavioral development. He has published more than 300 scientific articles in the areas of child and adolescent development, behavioural/emotional health in youth, sleep and its disorders in youth, adolescent brain development, and the public health/policy implications of this work.

At the time of the event, Ron was serving as Director of the Institute of Human Development, and Distinguished Professor, in the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley. He was the Founding Director of the Center for the Developing Adolescent, a transdisciplinary research centre founded on the recognition that adolescence represents a maturational period of great opportunities for positive impact on health, education, well-being, and social and economic success