Professor S. Jay Olshansky

S. Jay Olshansky, Ph.D. earned 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 Center on Aging at the University of Chicago and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
 
The focus of his research to date has been on estimates of the upper limits to human longevity, exploring the health and public policy implications associated with individual and population aging, forecasts of the size, survival, and age structure of the population, pursuit of the scientific means to slow aging in people (The Longevity Dividend), and global implications of the re-emergence of infectious and parasitic diseases, and insurance linked securities.
 
During the last twenty years, Jay 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 survival and dying out processes of living organisms.
 
His work on biodemography has been funded by a Special Emphasis Research Career Award (SERCA) and Independent Scientist Award (ISA) from the National Institute on Aging — awards that were designed to permit him to obtain additional graduate-level training in the fields of evolutionary biology, molecular biology, genetics, epidemiology, population biology, anthropology and statistics.
 
Jay is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Gerontology: Biological Sciences and Biogerontology, he is 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, and the Gerontological Society of America.
 
Jay is listed in Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, Who’s Who in American Education, Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare, American Men & Women of Science, and Who’s Who in America.
 
He was an invited speaker at the December, 2002 President’s Council on Bioethics, Fortune Magazine’s 2004 Brainstorm meeting, the 2004 Nobel Conference devoted to the science of aging, the Institute of Medicine — 2004, the 2005 UNESCO conference on Health and Longevity in Paris, the 2007 United Nations conference on Health and Aging, the 2007 World Ageing and Generations conference in Switzerland, the 2007 Global Financial Services CEO Roundtable in Italy, the 2009 Horizon21 symposium on Insurance Linked Securities, and he has testified before the trustees of the Social Security Administration where his research has influenced forecasts of the nation’s entitlement programs.
 
Jay is the recipient of a 2005/2006 Senior Fulbright Award to lecture in France; he was an adviser to U.S. Preventive Medicine; he is a founding member of the HSBC Global Commission on Ageing and Retirement; he is a member of the new MacArthur Foundation Network on an Aging Society; he is co-chair of the Council on an Ageing Society at the World Economic Forum; he is on the Program Advisory Group and Senior Associate at the International Longevity Center (US); he 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. And he is the first author of The Quest for Immortality: Science at the Frontiers of Aging.
 
His papers include: A Potential Decline in Life Expectancy in the United States in the 21st Century, The Aging of the Human Species, Provision or Distribution of Growth Hormone for “Antiaging”, If Humans Were Built to Last, New model of health promotion and disease prevention for the 21st century, Peering Into the Future of American Longevity, Position Statement on Human Aging, What Determines Longevity: Metabolic Rate or Stability?, and Medawar Revisited: Unresolved Issues in Research on Aging. Read more of his manuscripts!
 
Watch his 60 Minutes interview. Watch him on Charlie Rose.