The goals of this project are to recruit three scientifically established senior scientists from relevant disciplines to five-year K-12 fellowships in which they will redirect their major career focus to studying the demography of aging and to conducting significant research in the demography of aging. To help these investigators make this professional and scientific transition, they will select (after interviewing with interested investigators) scientific mentors who currently have active NIA research projects on the Demography of Aging at CDS. They will participate in the research projects of the selected mentors in multiple ways. They will be involved in the conceptualization of specific substantive studies, in the collection and preparation of data, in the analysis of data, and in the preparation of articles and monographs for the scientific peer-reviewed literature. It is expected that the research base for these persons will be in the Center for Demographic Studies (CDS) at Duke University. It is also expected that they will develop (and will be aided in developing) appointments in one of the regular academic departments of Duke University. It is expected that they will involve graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in their own research on the demography of aging as it develops. It is also expected that they will generate significant NIA-funded research projects on the demography of aging on their own (i.e., as principal investigators) so as to add to the critical mass of demographic research on aging at CDS and Duke University. It is expected that after their five-year appointments, they will continue at Duke University on their own funded research programs and with regular faculty appointments in academic departments. It is also expected that they will enrich the aging research environment at CDS and Duke University by bringing knowledge from their prior area of scientific specialization in order to help expand the knowledge base at CDS on which future demographic aging projects can be based. Thus, it is expected that, by recruiting scientifically established researchers, with considerable research potential, that the scientific enrichment will indeed, be an intellectual two-way """"""""street"""""""" for the K-12 fellows and CDS's research program.
