The award presentation will take place at GSA's 56th Annual Scientific Meeting, which will be held from November 21st-25th, 2003 in San Diego, California. The meeting is organized to foster interdisciplinary interactions among gerontological health care clinical, administrative, and research professionals.
Over the past 30 years, Dr. Gurland has made contributions to service and public policies that bear on dementia, depression and disability in the U.S. and other countries. He served as a co-leader of a U.S./U.K. collaborative project, which consisted of an uninterrupted series of epidemiological and health service comparisons started in 1965.
He recently completed a study of the quality of care and quality of life of elders in New York City, and a trans-cultural study of screening for Alzheimer's Disease and related disorders. Gurland directs programs in Geriatrics and Gerontology at Columbia University, holds an endowed chair as Professor of Psychiatry, and is director of the university's Stroud Center for Study of Quality of Life in Health and Aging.
The award is named in memory of M. Powell Lawton for his outstanding contributions to applied gerontological research. It also honors an individual for exemplifying one or more of Lawton's outstanding professional and personal qualities. The winner traditionally presents a lecture at the Annual Scientific Meeting the following year. The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Geriatric Center's Polisher Research Institute of the Madlyn and Leonard Abramson Center for Jewish Life.
The Gerontological Society of America (GSA), founded in 1945, is the oldest and largest national multidisciplinary scientific organization devoted to the advancement of gerontological research. Its membership includes some 5,000+ researchers, educators, practitioners, and other professionals in the field of aging. The Society's principal missions are to promote research and education in aging and to encourage the dissemination of research results to other scientists, decision makers, and practitioners.
Information about the Gerontological Society of America, its awards, and its 56th Annual Scientific Meeting can be found online at http://www.geron.org.