German psychologist
Ursula M. Staudinger (born April 3, 1959 in Nuremberg, West Germany) is a German psychologist and researcher of aging. She is the rector of the Technical University of Dresden (TUD).[1] She was Professor of Sociomedical Sciences and Professor of Psychology at the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center at Columbia University.[2] Between 2013 and 2017 Staudinger was the founding director of the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center and president of the affiliated International Longevity Center.[3][4][5][6][7]
Biography
Staudinger studied psychology at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen and at Clark University in Massachusetts from 1978 to 1984, receiving an MA from Erlangen in 1984. She carried out her dissertation at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin and obtained her doctorate from the Free University of Berlin in 1988. In 1997, she received her habilitation (venia legendi) in psychology from the Free University Berlin.
Academic career
From 1988 to 1992, Staudinger was a research scientist at the Academy of Sciences and Technology in Berlin. From 1992 to 1999, she was a senior scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development leading the research group on wisdom. Staudinger held a chair in lifespan psychology at Technical University Dresden from 1999 to 2003. She was then appointed Vice President and professor at the Jacobs University Bremen where she founded and led the Jacobs Center on Lifelong Learning and Development from 2003 to 2013.
From July 2013 until December 2017, Staudinger was the founding director of the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center,[4] a university-wide center that is based at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University and the Robert N. Butler Professor of Sociomedical Sciences and Professor of Psychology. As part her duties as director of the Aging Center, she also led the International Longevity Center (ILC).[8][9][10]
From 2007 until 2017, Staudinger was Vice President and Foreign Secretary of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.[11][12] She is Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of the German Federal Institute for Population Research since 2012[13] and consults the German Government on issues related to demographic change.[14] She was Speaker of the working group "Aging in Germany" (2009) and member of the working group "Future with Children" (2012), which were initiated by the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and provided recommendations for policy and society. Staudinger was Speaker of the working group "Mastering Demographic Change in Europe" (2014), which published a joint statement signed by eight European academies and was endorsed by ALLEA (All European Academies). She has been a visiting professor at Stanford University and the University of Florida. Since 2018 Staudinger is Member of the University Council of Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
On March 17, 2020, Staudinger was elected as new rector of the TU Dresden, succeeding Hans Müller-Steinhagen [de]. She took office as rector of the university on 18 August 2020.[15]
Research
Staudinger's research focuses on human development and aging.[16][17] She has worked on identifying the conditions under which individuals and societies can optimize aging. Her scientific research includes aspects of lifespan psychology, such as the potential of lifelong development (resilience and plasticity); the development of life insight, conduct of life and wisdom[18][19] across the lifespan as well as inter-generational relationships.[20]
Her work has been featured in articles by AARP,[21] The Huffington Post,[22] and New York Times[23] among others. In December 2014, Staudinger delivered a plenary speech during the Nobel Week Dialogue 2014, Demographic Change and Growth: A Paradox?[24]
