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James W. Vaupel, Research Professor at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy, Co-Director of the Biodemography of Aging Research Unit (BARU) within DUPRI, Faculty Research Scholar at DUPRI’s Center for Population Health and Aging (CPHA), and Founding Director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany recently visited Duke University to discuss an exciting new research project with BARU colleagues, Kenneth C. Land, Anatoliy Yashin and Eric Stallard. They are examining conventional age distributions of severe chronic disability and associated mortality for adults in the U.S. and other developed countries that have shown accelerations in the early older ages (65-75).  In recent decades, however, these accelerations have been postponed to middle-old (75-85) and oldest-old (85+) ages.  This project will: 1) document this postponement, 2) identify its physical and cognitive components, 3) study its variations by gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, and other covariates, and 4) make projections of its future development during the coming decades.

Spring Seminar Series begins on January 9th [Be sure to take a look at our spring speaker line up]

The DUPRI Seminar Series returns January 9, 2020.

View the complete Spring 2020 schedule.

(CNN)As Republicans and Democrats continue to sort themselves into different geographic regions, we may soon realize that social media is one of the few remaining places where bipartisan dialogue is actually possible. This question will become doubly urgent as younger generations of Americans continue to flock to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to learn about politics.

Fifty-four Duke researchers among most influential in their fields. The list of Highly Cited Researchers for 2019 includes 54 of Duke’s most prominent and influential researchers, some of whom made the list more than once. Among them are DUPRI's Avshalom Caspi, Terrie Moffitt and William Copeland

A pair of car-lovers who work at Duke University discover they have matching 1951 Frazer Manhattan convertibles. Nathan Swanson, 61, a staff assistant at Duke University’s Population Research Institute, and Rex Crews, 60, a lecturing fellow in Duke’s classical studies department, on their 1951 Frazer Manhattan convertibles, as told to A.J. Baime.

The day her eyelashes froze together turned out to be a pivotal day for Heather Whitson, MD, HS’01-’04, ‘06. She was a medical school student at Cornell University at the time, spending the winter in Boston doing research with a Harvard geriatrician. She was enjoying the research so much she was hoping to do her residency at Harvard so she could continue it. But when her eyelashes froze, she started dreaming of warmer climes. “At that point I asked [my mentors at Cornell and Harvard], ‘If you wanted to do geriatric research and be someplace with warmer winters, where would you go?’” says Whitson. “They both immediately said, ‘Duke’ and ‘Harvey Cohen.’ And it wasn’t just Duke, it was Harvey Cohen.” So she headed to Duke for her residency, and she has been here ever since. Today she is an associate professor in medicine and ophthalmology. And this summer, she became the new director of the Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, taking over the reins from Harvey Cohen, MD, HS’65-’67, ’69-’71, who stepped down after 37 years on the job.

Gregory Samanez-Larkin, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke, has received an Early Career Award from the Society for Neuroeconomics for research that examines how aging affects motivation and cognition across the lifespan.

DURHAM, N.C. -- The walking speed of 45-year-olds, particularly their fastest walking speed without running, can be used as a marker of their aging brains and bodies. Slower walkers were shown to have “accelerated aging” on a 19-measure scale devised by researchers, and their lungs, teeth and immune systems tended to be in worse shape than the people who walked faster. “The thing that’s really striking is that this is in 45-year-old people, not the geriatric patients who are usually assessed with such measures,” said lead researcher Line J.H. Rasmussen, a post-doctoral researcher in the Duke University department of psychology & neuroscience.

The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) is the oldest and largest interdisciplinary scientific organization devoted to the advancement of gerontological research, learning, and practice.