Sociologist Palloni receives coveted NIH MERIT award

UW–Madison sociologist and demographer Alberto Palloni has received a highly selective MERIT award (or Method to Extend Research in Time) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an award that promises continued research funding for up to 10 years.

Palloni, the T. Edwin Young Professor of Population and International Studies, is a leader in developing mathematical models for analysis of population dynamics, health and mortality and the aging process. This award is tied to Palloni’s research on health conditions and mortality among the elderly in Latin America.

Although the financial value of the award is not defined, Palloni has received nearly $14 million in NIH grants since 1999 to study a variety of issues related to aging, mortality, and the relationships between health and socioeconomic status.

Palloni says he plans to use the MERIT award to continue work on the relationship between early-childhood conditions and the onset of adult disease. He will also look at the childhood health as a determinant for social and economic inequalities.

Palloni is director of the Center for Demography and Ecology and an affiliate with the UW–Madison Institute on Aging and the department of population and health sciences. He also has served on the United Nations Task Force on HIV/AIDS based on his expertise on creating models for the spread of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

The NIH MERIT award allows a researcher to receive funding for up to a decade without the need to re-apply and compete for the grants. According to the NIH, MERIT awards are given to “support impressive records of scientific achievement in research areas of special importance or promise.” Fewer than 5 percent of all NIH researchers are granted such awards.

Among other criteria, eligible scientists must have a record of at least seven years of continuous NIH support; be a leader in their field with “paradigm-shifting ideas;” and have potential for high levels of future productivity.

Palloni received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Washington (Seattle) in 1977 and joined the UW–Madison faculty in 1980. He was elected this year to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is current president-elect of the Population Association of America.