One of 11 demography of aging centers funded by core grants from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the Center for Demography of Health and Aging (CDHA) is also home to a pre- and postdoctoral training program supported by a T32 grant from the institute. UW–Madison has received continuous T32 funding for training in population, life course and aging since 1986 and in June, the NIA renewed its support for this training program for five years.
“This is wonderful news for the center and for UW–Madison. This funding provides us with the resources to train the next generation of leaders in aging research,” said CDHA Director Pamela Herd (public affairs; sociology).
The T32 grant will allow CDHA to fund four annual traineeships for doctoral students and one postdoctoral fellowship from 2017 through 2022. Led by Jim Raymo (sociology), the CDHA training program brings together interdisciplinary research and teaching from several departments across the university, including economics, the La Follette School of Public Affairs, population health sciences, social work, and sociology. Current T32 trainees come from the departments of population health sciences, psychology, and sociology.
CDHA helps support faculty and graduate students who work to advance the understanding of aging through research, training, and data collection. Affiliate research focuses on four major thematic areas: aging and the life course; determinants of disparities of aging trajectories; comparative international studies of population aging; and social and economic aspects of aging. Recently, CDHA has expanded its research focus to include the interactions of social and biological correlates of health across the life course—making the center a leader in the field of biodemography.