The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) — the nation's largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging — has chosen Eileen Crimmins, PhD, of the University of Southern California (USC) as the 2012 recipient of the Robert W. Kleemeier Award.
This distinguished honor is given annually to a GSA member in recognition for outstanding research in the field of gerontology. It was established in 1965 in memory of Robert W. Kleemeier, PhD, a former president of the Society whose contributions to the quality of life through research in aging were exemplary.
The award presentation will take place at GSA's 65th Annual Scientific Meeting, which will be held from November 14 to 18 in San Diego. This conference is organized to foster interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers, educators, and practitioners who specialize in the study of the aging process. Visit www.geron.org/annualmeeting for further details.
Crimmins, the AARP Chair in Gerontology at the USC, is an internationally recognized expert on aging whose research focuses on the connections between socioeconomic factors and life expectancy and other health outcomes. She additionally directs the USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health, which is supported by the National Institutes of Health and provides a research environment that integrates and translates research findings from a variety of disciplines, such as epidemiology, clinical geriatrics, biostatistics, and biology into their effects on the health status of populations and the expected life cycles of individuals.
She is one of few internationally recognized demographers in the field of aging. She has become a respected researcher on topics as diverse as genetic influences on health in older adults; trends in mortality, morbidity, and disability; healthy life expectancy; biological markers of health; and life span health issues. Crimmins was a pioneer in developing and modeling the concept of healthy life expectancy to examine trends in population health. This work was particularly important in clarifying how improvements in life expectancy can be accompanied by a deterioration in population health, e.g., the percent of the population with a disability.
Crimmins has served as a member of the Board of Counselors for the National Center for Health Statistics, the head of the Demographic Sub-Committee of the technical panel to the Social Security Advisory Committee, and co-chair of a panel on life expectancy for the National Academy of Sciences. Crimmins also is a GSA fellow, which represents the Society's highest class of membership. She received a PhD in demography from the University of Pennsylvania and has been a member of the sociology faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Rutgers University, and the California Institute of Technology.
The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) is the nation's oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. The principal mission of the Society — and its 5,400+ members — is to advance the study of aging and disseminate information among scientists, decision makers, and the general public. GSA's structure also includes a policy institute, the National Academy on an Aging Society, and an educational branch, the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education.