14th Longevity Prize of La Fondation Ipsen Doctor Jacques Vallin is Awarded for Cross-National Comparison of Longevity Through Health Transition

PARIS--(Business Wire)--
The 14th annual Longevity Prize has been awarded to Jacques Vallin (Institut
National d'Etudes Démographiques, Paris) for his cross-national comparison of
longevity through health transition by an international jury1 led by Professor
Leonard Poon (University of Georgia, Athens, USA). He received the €20,000 prize
on 6 July 2009 at the World Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics (Paris,
France).

About the winner

Jacques Vallin is Emeritus Research Director at the Institut national d`études
démographiques (INED, Paris). With a doctorate in economics, he more over gets
degrees from the Institut d`études politiques de Paris, and from the Institut de
démographie de l`Université de Paris. INED researcher since 1965, he also was
Population Council expert in Tunisia (1967-1969), then representative in Algeria
(1972-1973). He is best renown for his pioneer researches on Cross-national
comparison of longevity through demographic and health transition. His main
fields of research are: population growth in developing countries, mortality and
causes of death in developed countries, and historical demography. He taught
demography at the Institut d`études politiques de Paris and in various
universities. He is Honorary President of the International Union for the
Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP).

He published about 30 books (most recently: Population et développement en
Tunisie; Tables de mortalité françaises; Mortalité et causes de décès en
Ukraine; Démographie : analyse et synthèse), and 200 articles (most recently:
Reversal of mortality decline: the case of contemporary Russia, World Health
Statistics Quarterly; Demographic trends: beyond the limits? Population;
Ukrainian losses during the 30s and 40s crises, Population Studies; Improving
the accuracy of life tables at the oldest ages, Population; The end of the
demographic transition: relief or concern? Population and Development Review;
Differential patterns of age-related mortality increase in middle ages and old
age, Journal of Gerontology: Biological Sciences, 2003; Trajectories of extreme
survival in heterogeneous population, Population; Convergences and divergences
in mortality. A new approach to health transition, Demographic Research; Minimum
mortality: a predictor of future progress? Population, 2008, The segmented trend
line of highest life expectancies, Population and Development Review).

About the Longevity Prize

Founded in 1996, the Longevity Prize of La Fondation Ipsen has been awarded to
renowned specialists: Caleb E. Finch (Los Angeles, 1996), Vaino Kannisto
(Lisboa, 1997), Roy L. Walford (Los Angeles, 1998), John Morley (St Louis,1999),
Paul & Margret Baltes (Berlin, 2000), Justin Congdon (Aiken, 2001), George
Martin (Seattle, 2002), James Vaupel (Rostock, 2003), Linda Partridge (London,
2004), Sir Michael Marmot (London, 2005), Cynthia Kenyon (San Francisco, 2006),
David Barker (Southampton, 2007) andGerald McLearn (University Park, 2008).

La Fondation Ipsen

Established in 1983 under the aegis of the Fondation de France, the mission of
La Fondation Ipsen is to contribute to the development and dissemination of
scientific knowledge. The long-standing action of La Fondation Ipsen is aimed at
furthering the interaction between researchers and clinical practitioners, which
is indispensable due to the extreme specialisation of these professions. The
ambition of La Fondation Ipsen is not to offer definitive knowledge, but to
initiate a reflection about the major scientific issues of the forthcoming
years. It has developed an important international network of scientific experts
who meet regularly at meetings known as Colloques Médecine et Recherche,
dedicated to six main themes: Alzheimer's disease, neurosciences, longevity,
endocrinology, the vascular system and cancer science. In 2007, La Fondation
Ipsen started three new series of meetings. The first is in partnership with the
Salk Institute and Nature and is an annual meeting which focuses on aspects of
Biological Complexity; the second is the "Emergence and Convergence" series with
Nature with 4 workshops a year, and the third annual meeting is with Cell and
the Massachusetts General Hospital entitled "Exciting Biologies". Since its
beginning, La Fondation Ipsen has organised more than 100 international
conferences, published 69 volumes with renowned publishers and more than 205
issues of a widely distributed newsletter Alzheimer Actualités. It has also
awarded more than 100 prizes and grants.

1 James Carey (University of California, Davis, USA), Eileen Crimmins
(University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA), Caleb Finch (University
of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA), Bernard Forette (Hôpital Sainte
Perine, Paris, France), Bernard Jeune (Center for Health and Social Policy,
Odense, Denmark), George Martin (University of Washington, Seattle, USA),
Jean-Pierre Michel (Hôpital Universitaire de Genève, Thonex, Switzerland),
Jean-Marie Robine (INSERM Equipe Démographie et Santé, Montpellier, France),
Jacques Treton (Institut de Recherches des Cordeliers, Paris, France) and Bruno
Vellas (Centre Hospitalier Regional Toulouse, France)

Brunswick Group
Robin Gilliland
Telephone: +1- 212 333 3810
Email: rgilliland@brunswickgroup.com
or
Justine McIlroy
Telephone: + 44 (0)207 396 3536
Fax: + 44 (0) 207 936 7836
Email: jmcilroy@brunswickgroup.com

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