Razak is an Adjunct Professor at the National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine, Faculty of Health, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW, Australia, and a Fellow of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and the Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA-Nigeria). He is a technical advisor to the World Health Organization on “The Commission on Social Connection: Ending Social Isolation and Loneliness” aimed to increase the visibility of the problem and accelerate the development and wide-scale implementation of effective solutions. Before joining APHRC, he was a Lecturer and Senior Research Scientist at the Department of Sociology and Social Policy, Lingnan University, Hong Kong. He was also a Lecturer at the College of Distance Education (CoDE), University Cape Coast, a Graduate Research Assistant at KNUST, and an instructor at Ghana Education Service.
Razak’s core research interests include active aging, social and environmental gerontology, geriatric nutrition, biopsychosocial and lifestyle behaviors, sleep health, and old age health seeking-behavior. Razak received several competitive funding awards from the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), the Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA-Nigeria), the Faculty of Social Sciences (Lingnan University), the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Disease. Razak has attended several Expert Group Meetings and networked with researchers globally and policy-makers in sub-Saharan Africa. He is an accomplished researcher with over 100 academic and scientific publications. His articles have appeared in premier gerontology and public health peer-reviewed journals, including The Gerontologist, Journals of Gerontology, Experimental Gerontology, Geriatric Nursing, Aging & Mental Health, Journal of Affective Disorders, Maturitas, International Psychogeriatrics, Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Journal of Aging and Health, PLOS One, among others.
He is a Senior Associate Editor of Behavioral Medicine, Academic Editor of PLOS Global Public Health, and Editorial Board Member of SAGE Open. He also served as Associate Editor of BMC Public Health (2018-2022) and co-edited a journal supplement issue for Frontiers in Public Health, Aging and Health Section (with Prof Emeritus David R. Phillips and Prof Dr. Dr. Daniel Buor). He is an external Ph.D. and Master’s Thesis Examiner for universities in Australia, South Africa, and Ghana. He has mentored and trained many young scholars and colleagues across the globe on academic writing since 2015.
Razak believes that a person’s socioeconomic and health circumstances in old age are, in large part, a result of cumulative exposures and behaviors over the life course. Healthy lifestyles in earlier parts of life are, thus, key and need to be harnessed to ensure a healthy and engaged old age. Such a life course perspective must inform Africa’s aging agenda more explicitly.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6733-1539
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=9JvBKgcAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Razak-Gyasi