Ryff named director of UW Aging Institute

Psychologist Carol Ryff has been named director of UW–Madison’s Institute on Aging, a 25-year-old center devoted to medical and social research on adult life.

Ryff, who served as interim director of the institute since 1995, has been on the UW–Madison psychology faculty since 1985. In announcing the appointment, Graduate School Dean Virginia Hinshaw said Ryff has the skills and enthusiasm necessary to build on the institute’s interdisciplinary mission.

“I’m really delighted that Carol has accepted this position,” Hinshaw said. “I certainly anticipate that the institute will play an increasingly important role in research and education as our society ‘ages’ into the next century.”

Ryff said the demographics of aging will make the institute’s research programs more relevant than ever. In 1900, only one in 25 Americans were age 65 and older. By the year 2000, Ryff said the number will jump to nearly one in every five Americans.