Education

• BS, Mathematics, Chestnut Hill College
• MA, Demography, University of Pennsylvania
• PhD, Demography, University of Pennsylvania

Research

• Demography of older populations
• Health and mortality
• Socioeconomic differences in health
• Biological risk
• Global aging

Overview

Eileen Crimmins is the AARP Professor of Gerontology in the Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a University Professor at USC. She is currently the director of the USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health, one of the Demography of Aging Centers supported by the U.S. National Institute on Aging. She is also the Director of the Multidisciplinary Training in Gerontology Program and the NIA-sponsored Network on Biological Risk. Crimmins is a co-investigator of the Health and Retirement Study in the U.S. Much of Crimmins’ research has focused on changes over time in health and mortality. Crimmins has been instrumental in organizing and promoting the recent integration of the measurement of biological indicators in large population surveys. She recently served as co-chair of a Committee for the National Academy of Sciences to address why life expectancy in the U.S. is falling so far behind that of other countries. She has recently co-edited several books with a focus on international aging, mortality and health expectancy: Determining Health Expectancies; Longer Life and Healthy Aging; Human Longevity, Individual Life Duration, and the Growth of the Oldest-old Population; International Handbook of Adult Mortality; Explaining Diverging Levels of Longevity in High-Income Countries; and International Differences in Mortality at Older Ages: Dimensions and Sources. She has received the Kleemeier Award for Research from the Gerontological Society of America.

Courses Taught

GERO 613 Health and Aging (4, Sp) Examination of changes in health related to age, changes in health in populations over time, and the key health issues facing older persons

GERO 592 Multidisciplinary Research Seminar in Aging (2, max 8, Fa Sp) Multidisciplinary perspectives on current research in gerontology, including physiology, neurobiology, health and medicine, psychology, sociology, and public policy. Topics will change each semester.