Steven N. Austad: Brief Academic Biography
Steven N. Austad, PhDis a professor in the Department of Cellular and Structural Biology faculty and the Barshop Institute for Longevity & Aging Studies.. A Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America since 1993, he is a past recipient of the Robert W. Kleemeier Award (2003) for outstanding research and the Geron Corporation-Samuel Goldstein Distinguished Publication Award (1994) from that Society. He received as well the Nathan A. Shock Award (1994) from the Gerontological Research Center of the National Institute on Aging and the Irving S. Wright Award (2011) from the American Federation for Aging Research. He currently serves as Section Editor on the Editorial Boards of Neurobiology of Aging and Aging Cell and as Associate Editor of the Journals of Gerontology: Biological Sciences. With Dr. Edward J. Masoro, he co-edited the 5th (2001), 6th (2006), and 7th (2011) Editions of the Handbook of the Biology of Aging. He also serves (since 2009) as Vice President and Chair of the Research Committee of the American Federation for Aging Research. Since 2001 he has been on the Initial Review Group for aging grants of the Ellison Medical Foundation. He was a charter member of the NIH Cellular Mechanisms of Aging and Development Study Section. In addition, he co-directs (with Dr. Gary Ruvkun, Harvard University) the 3-week summer course on the Molecular Biology of Aging at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory. Dr. Austad maintains a keen interest in the communication of science to the general public, and in that capacity has served on the Science Advisory Board of National Public Radio (1992-1997) and has been a consultant to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He has written popular science articles for numerous publications including Natural History magazine, Scientific American, National Wildlife, and International Wildlife. His trade book, Why We Age (1997), has been translated into 8 languages. Since March 2012, he has written a biweekly column (“On Aging”) for the San Antonio Express-News, a Texas newspaper with a readership of more than 300,000.
Research Interests:
Originally trained in evolutionary biology, Dr. Austad is interested in, and has published on, virtually all aspects of the study of aging from molecular biology to demography to the societal impact of an aging population. His research specialty is the comparative biology of aging, which asks why some species or strains live short lives with rapid physical decay and others live much longer, decaying slowly if at all. His research also involves developing lifestyle and pharmacological approaches to improving and preserving human health.
Pre-aging research life:
Prior to entering aging research, Dr. Austad with a degree in English literature was a newspaper reporter, trained wild animals for the Hollywood film industry, and drove a taxi cab in New York City, and hustled pool nation-wide. With a PhD in evolutionary ecology, he has done biological field research in several parts of the United States, Venezuela, England, Kenya, Micronesia, and Papua New Guinea.