Caleb Finch to Speak on “Puzzles and Paradoxes of the Aging Process” At Brookhaven Lab, November 14

UPTON, NY — Caleb Finch, Professor of Gerontology and Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California (USC), will talk on “Puzzles and Paradoxes of the Aging Process” at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, on Wednesday, November14, at 4 p.m. in Berkner Hall. The lecture is open to the public, but, for security reasons, everyone who enters the Laboratory site must have a photo ID.

Finch will discuss the basis for wide variations in life span. While each species has a characteristic longevity — humans outlive mice and mice outlive nematode worms, for example — the life span of individuals of any species varies considerably. According to Finch, genetics plays a relatively modest role in control of life span and aging. The case is remarkably clear for nematode worms: despite their identical genes and exposure to an identical environment, their individual life spans differ up to threefold. Further, Finch will explain similar dynamics for identical human twins who can differ so much not merely in terms of aging and life span, but also in the age of onset of menopause and Alzheimer’s disease.

After earning his undergraduate degree in biophysics from Yale University in 1961, Finch continued his work in cell biology, receiving his Ph.D. from Rockefeller University in 1969. Finch has received major awards in biomedical gerontology, including the 1985 Robert W. Kleemeier Award of the Gerontological Society of America , the 1995 Sandoz Premier Prize of the International Geriatric Association, and the 1999 American Aging Association’s Research Award.

Finch became a University Professor in 1989, an honor held by only seven other professors at USC. A member of ten editorial boards, he has written over 350 articles. In 1990, he published an internationally recognized and acclaimed reference book on aging, titled Longevity, Senescence and the Genome (University of Chicago Press). His latest book, Chance, Development and Aging (Oxford Press, 1999), was coauthored with Thomas Kirkwood.

Call 631 344 2345 for more information about the lecture. The Laboratory is located on William Floyd Parkway (County Road 46), one-and-a-half miles north of Exit 68 of the Long Island Expressway.