Robert Neil Butler

Robert Neil Butler

Robert Neil Butler (born January 21, 1927) is a physician, gerontologist, psychiatrist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, who was the first director of the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Butler is known for his work on the social needs and the rights of the elderly and for his research on healthy aging and the dementias.

Background

Having grown up with his grandparents, Butler was shocked by the dismissive and contemptuous attitude toward the elderly and theirdiseases by many of his teachers at medical school, an attitude he later characterised as "ageism".

He graduated from Columbia College of Columbia University, where he was editor of the Columbia Daily Spectator and a member of the Philolexian Society.

Career

Dr. Butler was a principal investigator of one of the first interdisciplinary, comprehensive, longitudinal studies of healthy community-residing older persons, conducted at the National Institute of Mental Health (1955-1966), which resulted in the landmark book "Human Aging". His research helped establish the fact that senility was not inevitable with aging, but is a consequence of disease.

In 1975, he became the founding Director of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health, where he remained until 1982. At the National Institute on Aging he established Alzheimer's Disease as a national research priority.

In 1982, he founded the Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, the first department of geriatrics in a United States medical school. In addition, Dr. Butler helped found the Alzheimer's Disease Association, the American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry, the American Federation for Aging Research and the Alliance for Aging Research.

In 1990, he established the U.S. branch of the International Longevity Center (ILC) at Mount Sinai Medical Center. In 1998 it became a separate 501(c)(3) institution affiliated with Mount Sinai.

Publications

Dr. Butler is best known for his 1975 book "Why Survive? Being Old In America", which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1976.cite web | title = Pulitzer Prize Winners: General Non-Fiction | work = | publisher =pulitzer.org | date = | url =http://www.pulitzer.org/ | format =web | doi = | accessdate = 2008-02-28 ] A 2003 paperback edition is currently available (ISBN 0-8018-7425-4). Other recent books by Dr. Butler include "Aging and Mental Health: Positive Psychosocial and Biomedical Approaches" (with Myrna I. Lewis and Trey Sunderland, 1998), "Life in an Older America" (2001) (ISBN 0-87078-438-2), and "The New Love and Sex After 60" (with Myrna I. Lewis, 2002) (ISBN 0-345-44211-3).

Dr. Butler is the author of 300 scientific and medical articles.Fact|date=March 2008

References

See also

*International Longevity Center
*Geriatrics
*Gerontology

External links

* [http://www.ilcusa.org/ International Longevity Center-USA ]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Robert Neil Butler — Robert N. Butler (2004) Robert Neil Butler (* 21. Januar 1927; † 4. Juli 2010) war ein US amerikanischer Hochschullehrer, Mediziner und Gerontologe. Biografie Nach dem Schulbesuch studierte er …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Butler (surname) — Butler is a surname that has been associated with many different places and people. It can be either: * an English occupational name that originally denoted a servant in charge of the wine cellar, from the Norman French word butuiller . It… …   Wikipedia

  • Robert Butler (disambiguation) — Robert Butler may refer to:*Robert Butler (1784 ndash;1853), treasurer of the State of Virginia from 1846 to 1853 *Sir Robert Reginald Butler (1866 ndash;1933), English businessman *Robert R. Butler (1881 ndash;1933), American politician and… …   Wikipedia

  • Butler (Familienname) — Butler ist ein Familienname. Bekannte Namensträger Inhaltsverzeichnis A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Robert Butler — ist der Name folgender Personen: Robert Butler (Regisseur) (* 1927), US amerikanischer Regisseur und Filmproduzent Robert Neil Butler (1927–2010), US amerikanischer Hochschullehrer, Mediziner und Gerontologe Robert Olen Butler (* 1945), US… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Neil Sheehan — Cornelius Mahoney Neil Sheehan (born October 27, 1936) is an American journalist. As a reporter for The New York Times in 1971, Sheehan obtained the classified Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg. His series in the Times revealed a secret U.S.… …   Wikipedia

  • Neil Connelly — Born August 6, 1968 (1968 08 06) (age 43) Pennsylvania Occupation Author, lecturer …   Wikipedia

  • Neil Hardwick — Robert Neil Hardwick (born July 22, 1948 in Teversal, England) is a British born Finnish theatre and TV director and writer. He was raised in Teversal, near Nottingham. His father was a teacher, and Neil Hardwick has described himself as a second …   Wikipedia

  • Robert A. Heinlein — Heinlein signing autographs at the 1976 Worldcon Born July 7, 1907(1907 07 07) Butler, Missouri, United States Died …   Wikipedia

  • Neil Murray (British musician) — Neil Murray Birth name Philip Neil Murray Born 27 August 1950 (1950 08 27) (age 61) Edinburgh, Scotland Genres Hard rock, blues rock, heavy metal …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”