Professor, School of Public Health, University of Illinois, Chicago, USA
Jay Olshansky received his Ph.D. in Sociology at
the University of Chicago in 1984. He is currently
a professor in the School of Public Health at the
University of Illinois at Chicago and a Research
Associate at the University of Chicago's Center
on Aging and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine. Dr. Olshansky was a faculty member of
the Department of Medicine at the University of
Chicago from 1989 to 2000. The focus of his research
to date has been on estimates of the upper limits
to human longevity, exploring the health consequences
of individual and population aging, and global implications
of the re-emergence of infectious and parasitic
diseases. During the last ten years, Dr. Olshansky
has been working with colleagues in the biological
sciences to develop the modern 'biodemographic paradigm'
of mortality – an effort to understand the biological
nature of the dying out process of living organisms.
Dr. Olshansky is the recipient of a Special Emphasis
Research Career Award [SERCA] and an Independent
Scientist Award [ISA] from the National Institute
on Aging – awards that were designed to permit him
to expand his formal training in the fields of evolutionary
biology, molecular biology, genetics, epidemiology,
population biology, anthropology, and statistics,
as each field relates to aging. Dr. Olshansky is
the current president of the Society for the Study
of Social Biology, a Senior Fulbright specialist
on biodemography, Associate Editor of the Journal
of Gerontology: Biological Sciences and Biogerontology;
on the editorial board of several other scientific
journals, and is a member of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, the New York Academy
of Sciences, the Gerontological Society of America,
and the Population Association of America. Dr. Olshansky
is also listed in Who's Who in Science and Engineering,
Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare, American Men
and Women of Science, and Who's Who in the 21st
Century. He has spoken before the President's Council
on Bioethics and has testified several times before
the trustees of the Social Security Administration
where his research has influenced forecasts of life
expectancy and the future solvency of the nationĘs
age entitlement programs. Dr. Olshansky has been
invited to lecture on aging throughout the world,
and has participated in a number of international
debates on the future of human health and longevity.
He is the lead author of a book entitled The Quest
for Immortality: Science at the Frontiers of Aging [Norton, 2001]. |
