The University of Chicago requests fluids for an Academic Leadership Career Award to Dr. Linda Waite to further interdisciplinary research into the demography, biodemography, and economics of aging. Waite was Co- director of the RAND Center for Aging Studies from 1989 to 1991, when she moved to the University of Chicago. Since she has been at Chicago, Waite wrote the application for the current NIA-funded training program in the demography and economics of aging and was responsible for preparing the proposal through which the exploratory Center on Demography and Economics of Aging was funded; she currently directs the CoA. She organizes the Demography Workshop at Chicago. These efforts have all substantially changed the research and training environment at Chicago, increasing the visibility of research on aging and enhancing the research environment. The proposed project would build on the recent substantial progress in establishing a productive training and research environment in aging at Chicago. Center researchers at Chicago already have a substantial portfolio of research underway on the demography, biodemography, and economics of aging. This project would allow Dr. Waite to improve the curriculum in aging across a number of departments, schools, and divisions; and to enhance the research capacity at Chicago through increased interaction among researchers and through provision of research support services. Curriculum changes would develop new undergraduate and graduate courses in a variety of departments. The award would also provide increased time for building crucial research partnerships both within and outside the university, as well as for establishing contacts and relationships with private foundations and other potential sources of research funding. Finally, the project would support specialized programming assistance to facilitate the use of several new, complex, longitudinal datasets.
