image: The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) will host its annual Scientific Awards of Distinction ceremony in conjunction with the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), on November 13, 2025 from 6:30pm-9:00pm ET in Room 306 of the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts. AFAR Scientific Director Steven N. Austad, PhD, will host the ceremony and present the awards to David B. Allison, PhD (2025 Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction), Lauren Hunt, PhD, RN, FNP (2025 Terrie Fox Wetle Rising Star Award in Health Services and Aging Research), and Arlan Richardson, PhD (2025 George M. Martin Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award). Award recipients will share lectures and remarks. A reception will follow.
Credit: AFAR
New York, NY and Boston, MA -- The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), a national non-profit whose mission is to support and advance healthy aging through biomedical research, will host its annual Scientific Awards of Distinction ceremony in conjunction with the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), on November 13, 2025 from 6:30pm-9:00pm ET in Room 306 of the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts.
AFAR Scientific Director Steven N. Austad, PhD, will host the ceremony and present the awards to David B. Allison, PhD (2025 Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction), Lauren Hunt, PhD, RN, FNP (2025 Terrie Fox Wetle Rising Star Award in Health Services and Aging Research), and Arlan Richardson, PhD (2025 George M. Martin Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award). Award recipients will share lectures and remarks. A reception will follow.
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David B. Allison, PhD, will receive the 2025 Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction. This award is named in honor of AFAR’s founder and recognizes exceptional contributions to basic or clinical research in the field of aging. Established in 1982, the award is a framed citation and carries a cash prize of $5,000.
Dr. Allison is the Chief of Nutrition and Director, Children's Nutrition Research Center, at Baylor College of Medicine. Previously, he served as dean and Distinguished Professor at the Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington. A leader in obesity, nutrition and aging research, he has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health as a Principal Investigator for over 25 years and has authored more than 700 scientific publications. He will present the lecture, "The Quest for Trustworthy, Probative, and Creative Geroscience.”
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Lauren Hunt, PhD, RN, FNP, will receive the 2025 Terrie Fox Wetle Rising Star Award in Health Services and Aging Research, named in honor of Dr. Wetle, who has devoted her professional career to improving the lives of older persons. The award is given to a health services researcher who has made important contributions that will be highly influential in shaping practice and research for decades to come. Established in 2020, the award is a framed citation and carries a cash prize of $5,000.
Dr. Hunt is an Associate Professor at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). As a PhD-trained nurse practitioner and health services researcher, she investigates policies and practices that will lead to better end- of-life care across care settings for older adults with serious illness, with a particular emphasis on the dementia population. She is currently funded by a Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development from the National Institute on Aging to examine variation in hospice use for older adults with dementia.
She will present the lecture, "Dying with Dementia: Is Hospice the Answer?”
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Arlan Richardson, PhD, will receive the 2025 George M. Martin Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award. The award is named in honor of George M. Martin, MD (1927-2022), a pioneer in the field of aging research and AFAR’s Scientific Director for more than a decade, who devoted his long, distinguished career to growing the field of aging research while fostering the careers of junior colleagues. The award recognizes individuals who during their careers demonstrated extraordinary mentorship in the field of aging research. The award is a plaque and carries a cash prize of $5,000.
Dr. Richardson is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry & Physiology and the Donald W. Reynolds Endowed Chair of Aging Research at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences. His research focuses on the effect of dietary restriction on gene expression, testing the oxidative stress theory of aging, and most recently, studying the effect of mitochondrial haplotype on aging and age-related diseases. For 26 years, he directed Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in Basic Biology of Aging at San Antonio and Oklahoma City. Dr. Richardson has mentored and directed the research of more than 100 MS and PhD graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty.
Dr. Richardson will share remarks.
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"AFAR's Wright, Wetle, and Martin awards are named in honor of farsighted scientists, and the recipients are chosen for their leadership and accomplishments," notes Stephanie Lederman, AFAR Executive Director. "This year's awardees join an impressive roster of scientists and practitioners who are advancing and applying research to improve health for older adults."
Nominations for AFAR’s Scientific Awards of Distinction are by invitation and are judged by independent panels of leading aging researchers. Learn more the awards history and past recipients here.
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About AFAR - The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) is a national non-profit organization that supports and advances pioneering biomedical research that is revolutionizing how we live healthier and longer. For more than four decades, AFAR has served as the field’s talent incubator, providing $225,316,000 to 4,539 investigators at premier research institutions to date—and growing. In 2025, AFAR expects to provide approximately $12,816,000 to 79 investigators through a range of programs. A trusted leader and strategist, AFAR also works with public and private funders to steer high quality grant programs and inter-disciplinary research networks. AFAR-funded researchers are finding that modifying basic cellular processes can delay—or even prevent—many chronic diseases, often at the same time. They are discovering that it is never too late—or too early—to improve health. This groundbreaking science is paving the way for innovative new therapies that promise to improve and extend our quality of life—at any age. Learn more at www.afar.org.