(919) 681-4993
Erwin Mill Building
Room A105 Box 90420
2024 W. Main St.
Durham, NC 27708-0420
James Vaupel
Research Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy
Founding Director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Co-Director of the Biodemographic Research Unit (BARU) within DuPRI
Faculty Research Scholar of DuPRI’s Center for Population Health & Aging
Overview
James Vaupel’s research focuses on the fields of aging research, biodemography, and formal demography. He has been instrumental in developing and advancing the idea of the plasticity of longevity, and pioneered research on the heterogeneity of mortality risks and on the deceleration of death rates at the highest ages. Because particular attention is paid to mortality improvements at the end of the lifespan in his studies, Vaupel has been influential in the emerging field of research into supercentenarians as a population subset. The number of persons aged 110+ in a single European nation is rather small. Vaupel therefore began the push in 2000 by inviting experts from around the world to meet in international workshops and to found the International Database on Longevity, which provides information on individuals attaining extreme ages and permits demographic analysis of mortality at the highest ages.
Education
Ph.D., Harvard University (1978)
M.P.P., Harvard University (1971)
B.A., Harvard University (1967)
