Óscar Ribeiro, a researcher at CINTESIS@RISE/University of Aveiro, was elected a Fellow of the Gerontology Association of America (GSA), considered to be the largest and longest-running interdisciplinary organization dedicated to the study, teaching and intervention in the field of ageing.
This award, given annually, is the highest distinction granted by the GSA, which aims to recognize members who carry out “exceptional and consistent” work in Gerontology.
“It’s a privilege to have been nominated and elected a GSA Fellow and to be part of a shortlist of names which, for the first time, includes a Portuguese,” Óscar Ribeiro said about this honor, which took place in November, as part of the 79th GSA Annual Congress, in Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
The researcher considers this international recognition to be “gratifying”, given the work he has been doing on various topics related to longevity since the beginning of his career.
In his words, this is a distinction for his contribution to the scientific knowledge produced in Gerontology and Geriatrics and for his “involvement and support for students and researchers at the start of their careers, particularly in postgraduate training”.
A recent example of this work was the support given to the creation of the association’s first studentchapter outside the USA, the GSA Student Chapter – University of Aveiro, which includes CINTESIS researchers and of which Óscar Ribeiro is an “advisor”.
“Being recognized by one of the most prestigious associations in the field of aging reflects the commitment we have made for more than two decades to the in-depth study of aging from a multidisciplinary perspective, with a special interest in the mechanisms of psychological adaptation to the multiple social and health challenges related to advanced longevity,” he comments.
For Óscar Ribeiro, this distinction is also “the reflection of a ‘way of being’ in the production of knowledge in Gerontology and Geriatrics that sees his team’s collaboration with leading international experts in the field of ageing as a natural way of working, as well as promoting the dissemination and understanding of human ageing on a global scale, without ever losing sight of the specificities of growing old and being old in Portugal”.
Founded in 1945, the GSA is an association with approximately 5,500 members whose mission is to promote the study of ageing and disseminate knowledge to scientists, policy-makers and the general public.
Óscar Ribeiro was director of the Doctoral Program in Gerontology and Geriatrics (UA/ICBAS) and, as a member of the GSA, has regularly collaborated on various initiatives. He is the author of several publications in the GSA’s journals, some of the world’s most renowned in the field of ageing. As principal investigator of CINTESIS@RISE, he leads AgeingC, a research group dedicated to ageing.