Prof Peter Nestor

Professor Peter Nestor is Clinical Program Leader of the Neurosciences and Cognitive Health Program at Mater Research and a cognitive neurologist at Mater Hospital Brisbane. He holds a conjoint appointment with the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI), The University of Queensland.

Peter’s research interests are in improving understanding of the major forms of dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease, Frontotemporal dementias (with a particular focus on progressive aphasias), and Lewy body diseases. This work involves developing a deeper knowledge of how these diseases affect the brain through implementation of novel brain imaging methods and better differential diagnosis through new neuropsychological measures of cognition. His published work has been cited more than 10 000 times.

Peter has been a member of several international working groups such as for the revision of diagnostic criteria for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy; the consensus statement on Posterior Cortical Atrophy; guidelines for the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI scans) in suspected dementia; and for the use of fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET scans) in degenerative brain diseases. He has also been invited to present numerous lectures throughout the world on the clinical assessment of suspected dementia and related research topics.

Peter studied medicine at the University of Melbourne and then undertook physician training at the Royal Melbourne Hospital followed by advanced training in Neurology at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne and at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London. From there, he moved to the University of Cambridge and completed a fellowship and PhD in Cognitive Neurology, staying on as a consultant neurologist and researcher for fifteen years. From 2012 to 2017, he was Professor of Cognitive Neurology at the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Disease (DZNE), in Magdeburg, Germany before returning to Australia to accept a joint appointment between Mater Hospital and the Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland.

Personal Statement
“Our mental abilities—such as our memories and language—and our personality define who we are as individuals. Therefore, I believe it is not an exaggeration to say that when a degenerative brain disease causes us to start to lose these abilities, it is attacking the very core of what it means to be human. Through my work I try to understand how these diseases evolve in the hope that one day, we will be able to stop them.”