January 24, 2013 | News | The Biodemography of Aging

A new Max Planck Center opens in Denmark

The Max Planck Society, in association with Syddansk University, has established a center for research on the biodemography of aging. MPIDR Director James W. Vaupel will head up the center, which opens on January 31, 2013.

The Max Planck Society, in association with the University of Southern Denmark, has established a center for research on the biodemography of aging. The center will be located in Odense, Denmark. James W. Vaupel, the director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, will head up the center. The official opening of the center will be on January 31, 2013.

The focus of the research conducted at the Max Planck Odense Center on the Biodemography of Aging will be on the causes and consequences of age-related changes in health, as well as on the growth in life expectancy.

Still a young discipline, biodemography creates an interface between medicine, biology, and demography. “Biodemography offers new approaches to finding answers to important questions posed by both science and society, such what the state of our health will be as we become progressively older,” James W. Vaupel said.

Because the issues that will be investigated at the new Max Planck Center can be tackled only by using an interdisciplinary approach, scientists from many different subject areas, such as evolutionary biology, epidemiology, and mathematics, will have to work together in future to address them.

There will be four main research areas at the new center: one will explore human longevity, another will focus on medical demography, a third will look at prognoses and strategies, and yet another will study evolutionary biodemography.

About the MPIDR
The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock (MPIDR) investigates the structure and dynamics of populations. It focuses on issues of political relevance such as demographic change, aging, fertility, the redistribution of work over the course of life, as well as aspects of evolutionary biology and medicine. The MPIDR is one of the largest demographic research bodies in Europe and one of the worldwide leaders in the field. It is part of the Max Planck Society, the internationally renowned German Research Society.

About the Max Planck Centers
The Max Planck Centers provide the Max Planck Institutes with the opportunity to advance international cooperation. Unlike the Max Planck Institutes located abroad, the centers are always structured as joint projects between a local research institute or university and a Max Planck Institute in Germany. The Max Planck Odense Center on the Biodemography of Aging will be the first Max Planck Center in Scandinavia.