Gerontology Institute Distinguished Speaker to Discuss Successful Aging

Robert Kahn, professor emeritus of psychology and public health at the University of Michigan, will present a lecture, "Successful Aging: Prospects and Potentialities," on Thursday, April 12, at 7:30 p.m. in the Emerson Suites, Phillips Hall. The event is part of the Ithaca College Gerontology Institute’s Distinguished Speaker Series, which brings leaders in the field of gerontology to campus.

Kahn and John W. Rowe, president of the Mount Sinai Hospital School of Medicine, coauthored the book Successful Aging: The MacArthur Foundation Study, which presents data showing that individual lifestyle choices --- and not genetic inheri-tance — determine the quality of life in later years. The MacArthur Foundation Study of Aging in America, a 10-year multi- disciplinary study led by Kahn and Rowe, was conducted to develop a definition of what it means to age successfully. In his lecture Kahn will discuss the study and its attempt to identify the factors --- individual choices in diet, exercise, mental stimulation, and dynamic involvement with others — that enable large numbers of people to preserve and even enhance their mental and physical vitality in later life.

For more information call Terry Beckley at 274-1967.