In addition to being Emeritus Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne, he is a part-time consultant psychiatrist at a number of hospitals in Melbourne, a professorial fellow with The National Ageing Research Institute and a research fellow at the Howard Florey Institute.
[1] In 2018, Ames was made an Officer of the General Division of the Order of Australia (AO) in the 2018 Australia Day Honours, for distinguished service to psychiatry, particularly in the area of dementia and the mental health of older persons, as an academic, author and practitioner, and as an adviser to professional bodies.
[2] Ames graduated with honours in Medicine and Obstetrics & Gynaecology (MBBS) in 1978 from the University of Melbourne, where he was awarded the Upjohn prize for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.
In 1985 Ames was appointed to a position as an honorary lecturer and research fellow at the Royal Free Hospital.
Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle Study of Ageing, started in 2006, is a study of over 1,100 people assessed over a long period of time ( > 4.5 years) to determine which biomarkers, cognitive characteristics, and health and lifestyle factors determine subsequent development of symptomatic Alzheimer's Disease.