With a background in anthropology and population studies, Sarah Harper is Professor of Gerontology at the University of Oxford, a Fellow at University College, and the founding director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing. Harper served on the UK Prime Minister's Council for Science and Technology, and in 2017 she was director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. She is a director and trustee of the UK Research Integrity Office and a member of the Board of Health Data Research UK. Harper was appointed a CBE in 2018 for services to demography. She is currently researching the impact of falling fertility and increasing life expectancy, with a particular interest in Asia and Africa. For the past four years she been a judge for the $250,000 Ryman Prize, awarded for work into improving the quality of life for older people, which Prime Minister Jacinda Adern presents this week.