Author: UrsulaAdmin

Nearly 40 leading researchers, policy experts and journalists participated in this year’s Age Boom Academy, a joint event hosted by the Columbia Aging Center and the Columbia Journalism School, to look into the issues of „Over-65 Voters and the Changing Political Landscape“. Ursula Staudinger presented her latest research findings on aging and demonstrated how the meaning of chronological age is relative. Thus, it would make more sense to generally speak of particular birth cohorts instead of a specific age. Moreover, Staudinger emphasized that our own perceptions of old age have a great impact on how we act and experience this stage in life. Read more

Eight European academies of sciences published a joint statement on demographic change in Europe, in which they urge policymakers to consider how longer working lives demand new, flexible life-course patterns. Also, the academies emphasize that Governments and institutions will need to plan for changes in population against a backdrop of climate change and shortages in natural resources.

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A recent article by Gregory Beyer in The Huffington Post features Ursula Staudinger’s work on wisdom. Staudinger shares 10 elemental thoughts on what wisdom is, what it isn’t and why it’s so hard to attain. For instance, to move towards wisdom we need to constantly challenge ourselves and the established order of our lives. “It’s going a little bit beyond what you’ve done before, venturing out a little bit into new territory,” she told The Huffington Post. “It has to hurt a little bit — not in a masochistic way — but it has to be effortful.” click here for the complete article

Ursula Staudinger talks about the concept of wisdom in a recently published article by Phyllis Korkki in the New York Times. As co-founder of the Berlin Wisdom Project, a research effort that sought to define wisdom in the 1980s, she makes a distinction between general wisdom (understanding life from an observer’s perspective) and personal wisdom (insight into one’s own life). Her model of personal wisdom includes five elements (e.g. self-insight, awareness of life’s ambiguities). Professor Staudinger’s studies have shown that wisdom in this sense is rarely found in people. Also, wisdom actually declines in the final decades. While many people tend to develop a coping strategy in old age and look back on their lives in a more positive light, a wise person in contrast would acknowledge failures and losses, and still try to improve.

Ursula M. Staudinger announced the arrival of three new research scientists at the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center. David Weiss, PhD, will join the research team as assistant professor of Sociomedical Sciences and Anne K. Reitz, PhD, as post-doctoral research scientist in psychology. Dr. Ruth Finkelstein begins in April as the Associate Director of the CAC’s International Longevity Center. “The Columbia Aging Center’s ability to study and promote healthy and productive aging takes on new dimensions as we welcome these new researchers,” said Ursula Staudinger. All three will contribute to the Columbia Aging Center’s mission to better understand the aging process and its implications for societies with longer lifespans seeking to maximize productivity, quality of life, and healthcare. Read more