Merril Silverstein (CAPS-Syracuse) Wins Grant Award | Centers on Demography and Economics of Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias)

The National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) and David H. Olson, Ph.D., are proud to recognize Woosang Hwang, Ph.D. and Merril Silverstein, Ph.D., as the 2023 recipients of the NCFR Olson Grant: Bridging Research, Theory, and Practice. Now in its fourth year, this $10,000 annual grant is available to NCFR members working to creatively contribute to the discipline of Family Science by effectively uniting research, theory, and practice in their work. Dr. Hwang and Dr. Silverstein will be recognized during a plenary at the 2023 conference. They will present findings from the study at the 2024 NCFR Annual Conference, to be held Nov. 20-23, 2024, in Bellevue, Washington.

CAPS Texas Center on Aging and Population Sciences James Jackson Outstanding Mentorship Award
Recipient: Jacqueline L. Angel, PhD, FGSA, of The University of Texas at Austin
This award recognizes outstanding commitment and dedication to mentoring minority researchers in the field of aging.

Richard Kalish Innovative Publication Award
Recipient: Debra Umberson, PhD, FGSA, of the University of Texas
For the article, “Gender and Social Isolation Across the Life Course”
This award recognizes insightful and innovative publications on aging and life course development in the behavioral and social sciences in two categories: (1) Book Category and (2) Article Category.

Read the full GSA press release.

The National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID) and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI) are pleased to announce that Dr. Arline Geronimus, professor of health behavior & health education and research professor at the Population Studies Center in the Institute for Social Research — was selected as the 2021 recipient of the James S. Jackson Distinguished Career Award for Diversity Scholarship.

About Dr. Geronimus

Dr. Geronimus is a national and international leader in population health. She has made unique and seminal contributions to theory, empirical research, methodology, and practice as it relates to diversity. Her interdisciplinary abilities and collaborations have been consistently at the vanguard of several fields including public health, medicine, economics, political science, critical race theory, and applied anthropology.

Over 30 years ago, Dr. Geronimus coined the term “weathering” to describe the effects of systemic structural and cultural oppression upon the body. Weathering refers not only to how life in America erodes the health of people of color, the poor, and other culturally oppressed people, but also to how they tenaciously resist such erosion, and how those efforts in turn have a complex mix of negative as well as positive consequences for their health. To be weathered is to be subjected to the structural challenges and existential insults that our society creates for those who are marginalized.

Her scholarly work evinces that she has long been sensitive to the fact that throughout US history, racism has constricted the democratic imagination and empathy for non-whites — and “others” more broadly defined — leading to limited notions of political community and citizenship with dire consequences.

The quality of her scholarship has been consistently recognized with an award list that encompasses the University of Michigan School of Public Health Excellence in Research Award and election to the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Geronimus’ research productivity, stature in the field, and acclaim for her many unique and significant contributions makes her one of the leading scholars in her field.

About the Award

The James S. Jackson Distinguished Career Award for Diversity Scholarship recognizes a senior faculty member at the University of Michigan who has made important contributions to understanding diversity, equity, and inclusion through research, scholarship and creative endeavors, who has an outstanding record as an educator in teaching and mentoring, and whose work has focused on issues of importance to underrepresented communities.

Karen Fingerman, Adult Development and Aging, American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association’s Division 20 awarded Karen Fingerman the 2022 Baltes Distinguished Research Achievement Award.

The Baltes Distinguished Research Achievement (DRA) Award, sponsored by the Margret M. and Paul B. Baltes Foundation, is Div. 20’s most prestigious award. It has been established to honor researchers with distinguished careers that have featured exceptional theoretical and empirical contributions to the psychological science of aging. Nominees must be current members or affiliates of Div. 20.

Anthony Ong Mid-Career Trajectory in Affective Science Award celebrates the outstanding scientific impact of Society for Affective Science (SAS) members who received their PhD (or other terminal degree) more than 10 and fewer than 25 years prior to that year’s SAS meeting.

Dr. Anthony Ong’s research focuses on the pathways linking positive emotions to diverse aspects of psychological functioning and physical health. This work is conducted in studies involving adolescents and adults that incorporate standard laboratory experiments, implicit and explicit behavioral measures, psychophysiology, and intensive longitudinal methods. Dr. Ong has shown that enduring and fragile forms of positive affect exert both risk-protective and risk-augmenting effects on health. Whereas positive affect that is enduring is relatively stable, positive affect that is fragile reflects short-term fluctuations that are variable and subject to external influence. His work has been published in academic journals including Perspectives on Psychological Science, Emotion, Psychological Science, Development and Psychopathology, and JAMA Network Open.

Deb Umberson - National Institutes of Health Please join us in congratulating Deb Umberson for being selected for the Method to Extend Research in Time (MERIT) Award. This is the highest accolade a researcher can receive from NIH!

The award comes from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in recognition of Deb Umberson’s outstanding record of scientific achievements as a principal investigator on National Institute on Aging (NIA) research projects. In selecting this application for the MERIT Award, the NIA is recognizing sustained contribution to aging and leadership and commitment to the field. At the same time, the NIA is expressing its conviction that she will continue to make significant advances in aging research for many years to come.

MERIT Awards provide long-term support to outstanding, experienced investigators. This award will extend NIH funding for Deb’s study, How Spouses Influence Each Other’s Health in Same- and Different-Sex Marriages: A Dyadic and Longitudinal Assessment from Mid to Later Life.

Congratulations Deb!

Shannon Monnat The Syracuse University Graduate School Programs annually solicits nominations from graduate students, faculty, staff and alumni for the Excellence in Graduate Education Faculty Recognition Award. This award honors faculty who have a significant, positive influence on graduate education through their commitment to superior graduate teaching, dedication to departmental and community presence and research initiatives. Nominations are reviewed and winners selected by an interdisciplinary committee of graduate students.

Daniel Polsky Congratulations to HEADS Center co-director Dan Polsky and Jianhui (Frank) Xu who were recently awarded Arnold Ventures funding to assess the role of provider networks in creating value for Medicare, Medicare Advantage (MA), and Massachusetts plans.

Center for Aging and Policy Studies and PAA Population Association of America Congratulations to Shannon Monnat (Syracuse University CAPS) who joined the Population Association of America’s (PAA) Committee on Population Statistics, a prestigious group appointed by the PAA President to discuss technical issues and activities important to Federal statistical agencies & to advise PAA leadership on these issues.

Laura B. Zahodne, of the Michigan Center on the Demography of Aging (MiCDA), has been awarded the 2021 Margret M. and Paul B. Baltes Foundation Award. This award acknowledges outstanding early career contributions in behavioral and social gerontology. This award is given by Gerontological Society of America (GSA) in conjunction with the Margaret M. and Paul B. Baltes Foundation.

Dr. Zahodne’s research focuses on cognitive and brain aging, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD), and racial disparities in ADRD. The overall aim of her research program is to understand how psychosocial experiences influence late-life cognitive trajectories and the expression of neurodegenerative disease.

(734)-615-1724

426 Thompson St. PO Box 1248
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106, USA

Sitemap

The Coordinating Center is funded by the National Institute on Aging (R24AG066588) and is located in the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. Amanda Sonnega, PhD, Director