Ursula Staudinger

Ursula Staudinger Columbia Aging Center

Ursula M. Staudinger (born April 3, 1959 in Nuremberg, West Germany) is a German psychologist and aging researcher. She is the founding director of the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center,^[1] the Robert N. Butler Professor of Sociomedical Sciences, and a Professor of Psychology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.^[2][3][4]

Biography

Staudinger studied psychology at the Friedrich-Alexander-University in Erlangen and at Clark University in Massachusetts from 1978 to 1984, receiving an MA from Erlangen in 1984. She carried out her dissertation at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin and obtained her doctorate from the Free University of Berlin in 1988. In 1997, she received her habilitation (venia legendi) in psychology from the Free University Berlin.

Academic career

From 1988 to 1992, Staudinger was a research scientist at the Academy of Sciences and Technology in Berlin . From 1992 to 1999, she was a senior scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development leading the research group on wisdom. Staudinger held a chair in lifespan psychology at Technical University Dresden from 1999 to 2003. She was then appointed Vice President and professor at the Jacobs University Bremen where she founded and led the Jacobs Center on Lifelong Learning and Development from 2003 to 2013.

In July 2013, Staudinger joined Columbia University as the founding director of the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center,^[1] a university-wide center that is based at the Mailman School of Public Health and the Robert N. Butler Professor of Sociomedical Sciences and Professor of Psychology. As part her duties as director of the Aging Center, she also leads the International Longevity Center (ILC).^[5][6][7]

Staudinger is Vice President and Foreign Secretary of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina^[8][9] and Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of the German Federal Institute of Population Research.^[10] She consults the German Government on issues related to demographic change.^[11] She was Speaker of the working group "Aging in Germany" (2009) and member of the working group "Future with Children" (2012), which were initiated by the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and provided recommendations for policy and society. Staudinger was Speaker of the working group [http://www.leopoldina.org/en/publications/detailview/?publication[publication]=573&publication[action]=show "Mastering Demographic Change in Europe"] (2014), which published a joint statement signed by eight European academies and was endorsed by ALLEA (All European Academies).

She has been a visiting professor at Stanford University and the University of Florida.

Research

Staudinger's research focuses on human development and aging.^[12][13] She has worked on identifying the conditions under which individuals and societies can optimize aging. Her scientific research includes aspects of lifespan psychology, such as the potential of lifelong development (resilience and plasticity); the development of life insight, conduct of life and wisdom^[14][15] across the lifespan as well as inter-generational relationships.^[16]

Her work has been featured in articles by AARP,^[17] The Huffington Post,^[18] and New York Times^[19] among others. In December 2014, Staudinger delivered a plenary speech during the Nobel Week Dialogue 2014, Demographic Change and Growth: A Paradox?^[20]

Awards & Fellowships

• 2014, Braunschweig Research Prize^[21]
• 2014, Fellow, The Gerontological Society of America (GSA)^[22]
• 2011, Fellow, Association for Psychological Science (APS)
• 2008–2010, President (2006–2008 Vice President) German Society for Psychology^[23]
• 2007–present, Vice President (Member since 2002), Academy of Sciences Leopoldina^[24][25]
• 2002–present, Corresponding Member, Heidelberg Academy for Sciences and Humanities
• 1999, Fellow, American Psychological Association (APA)

Publications (selection)

• Staudinger, U.M. (2015). "Images of aging: Outside and inside perspectives." In: Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 35(1), 187-210.
• Skirbekk, V., Stonawski, M., Bosang, E. & Staudinger, U. M. (2013). "The Flynn effect and population aging." In: Intelligence, 41(3), 169-177.
• Uglanova, E. A., & Staudinger, U. M. (2013). "Zooming in on Life Events: Is Hedonic Adaptation Sensitive to the Temporal Distance from the Event?" In: Social Indicators Research, 111(1), 265-286.
• Mühlig-Versen, A., Bowen, C. E., & Staudinger, U. M. (2012). "Personality Plasticity in Later Adulthood: Contextual and Personal Resources Are Needed to Increase Openness to New Experiences." Psychology & Aging, 27(4), 855-866.
• U. Staudinger und J. Glück: "Psychological Wisdom Research: Commonalities and Differences in a Growing Field." Annual Review of Psychology 62, 2011
• C. Voelcker-Rehage, B. Godde und U.M. Staudinger: Physical and motor fitness are both related to cognition in old age." European Journal of Neuroscience 31, 2010, 167–176
• U. Staudinger und E.-M. Kessler: "Intergenerational potential: Effects of social interaction between older people and adolescents." Psychology and Aging 22, 2007, 690-704
• U. Staudinger und H. Häfner: Was ist Alter(n)? Verlag Springer, 2007, ISBN 3-540-76710-X, at Google Books
• Paul B. Baltes und U. Staudinger: Interactive minds: life-span perspectives on the social foundation of cognition. Cambridge University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-521-48567-3, at Google Books
• U. Staudinger und Ulman Lindenberger: Understanding Human Development. Verlag Springer, 2003, ISBN at Google Books.
• L. G. Aspinwall und U. Staudinger: A psychology of human strengths. American Psychological Association, 2004, ISBN 1-557-98931-1

References

External links

• Official website
• Profile at Columbia University's Aging Center
• Profile at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
• Profile at Leopoldina German Academy of Sciences