Member Spotlight

Q&A with Hans-Werner Wahl, PhD from Heidelberg, Germany.

		"Always keep in mind that aging is fundamental for our societies as well as for the understanding of human development."
Meet Hans-Werner.

Q: How long have you been a GSA member? What GSA member benefit do you like best and why?
A: I have been a member of GSA since 1992. Receiving the Journals is, of course, very important to me because they are excellent resources for learning about progress, including new insights for basic as well as applied aging research.  What I appreciate even more are the Annual Meetings, which I see as an ideal combination of high level scientific communication and profound personal experience; it’s also about meeting good colleagues and friends.

Overall, I am very proud as a German and European aging researcher to have a close relationship with the largest national organisation of aging researchers and practitioners, an organisation which continues to stay ahead of the trends in the many areas of gerontology.

Q: How does GSA assist with your professional development?
A: I believe that becoming a member of GSA early on has made a tremendous difference in the course of my career. In particular, submitting symposia to the Annual Meeting and serving other contributions over the years—from a young scientist to being now in my mid fifties—always meant presenting and discussing the best research I had to offer to a distinguished audience of researchers and aging professionals. Such activity always served in my case as major feedback in terms of auditing and criticizing my career as well as expanding to new borders. In addition, it has remained an important ambition of mine to publish in GSA’s peer-reviewed journals and to experience with this activity strong feelings of belonging to an outstanding scientific association.

Q: How did you get interested in the field of aging?
A: This happened more or less by accident. Aging did not play a role in my psychology studies and therefore I was not prepared to search for a career in this area. I nevertheless found my first affiliation as a research associate in a gero-psychiatric research project. Then, becoming a doctoral student of Margret M. Baltes at the Free University of Berlin in the midst of the 1980’s, was the break-through for a steadily increasing feeling of “Gerontology – mon amour!”

Q: Why is it important for other individuals to join GSA?
A: I strongly believe that the Annual Scientific Meeting, the Journals, as well as a rich scope of other activities, do an especially fine job in developing the areas of aging research across many disciplines and at the levels of theory, research, and translation in North America and beyond. I particularly enjoy the interdisciplinary discourse nurtured by GSA as well as the warm and friendly atmosphere at its conferences and other meeting occasions. At the same time, scientific rigor has always been critical as GSA evolved over the decades. All of these are exceptional reasons, I believe, to join GSA not only as a North American researcher, but also for the international community. It is great to see that GSA expressly acknowledges its international members as part of a special invitation, which takes part at every convention.

Q: What are your key responsibilities at your job?
A: As a university professor, there are two major areas of critical importance.  For one, I am a researcher with the ambition to serve the field of aging with basic as well as applied findings. For example, our unit at Heidelberg University is the only one in Germany with a strong fundamental interest in the understanding of adaptational processes in age-related sensory loss.  Second, I am involved in teaching at the Bachelor’s, Master’s and graduate level. In my institute, we have the great privilege of conducting psychological research targeting the full lifespan, from the very young infant to the very old. I believe that our students profit immensely from this perspective.

Q: What has been your most memorable experience in gerontology and aging research?
A: I am always amazed at how severely visually impaired older adults manage their daily life and the losses associated with this chronic condition. As I frequently realized during the countless interviews I conducted myself as part of this research, visually impaired older adults are so creative and wise in their strategies and resources used, which has been quite impactful on my own life. At another level, the passing away of colleagues and friends, such as Margret M. Baltes in 1999 and M. Powell Lawton in 2001, profoundly touched me.

Q: Do you have any tips for emerging gerontologists?
A: Across disciplinary borders, there are some specifics emerging gerontologists should know regarding the aging research business: believe in the importance of your research themes, always keep in mind that aging is fundamental for our societies as well as for the understanding of human development (which still means here and there fighting against negative aging stereotypes and ageism), do the right academic networking early on and trust the chemistry between scientists (not only cognitive fit), and keep the work-life balance thoroughly in mind from the start on of your career.

Q: Tell us a little about your most recent activities/accomplishments?
A: I am passionate about interdisciplinary research in aging research. For example, we have a running project on outdoor mobility patterns of cognitively impaired older adults using the latest GPS technology, which includes psychologists, geographers, psychiatrists and experts in the ethics of aging. I also recently became interested in the issue of awareness of age-related change and enjoy the collaboration with my colleague and friend Prof. Diehl from Colorado State University.

It is also a tremendous honour having been selected as recipient of GSA’s M. Powell Lawton Award 2009. This is deeply touching and I am proud to be a member of GSA.

Q: Have you had an important mentor in your career? If so, how did it make a difference?
A: The experience of working with Margret M. Baltes has been very important for my academic development. The balance of guidance and autonomy offered to me by Margret was outstanding and has greatly influenced my own way of nurturing young scholars. Another significant mentor was Powell Lawton, a giant in social and behavioural aging research and research translation, who deeply impressed me with his modesty. Both of these internalized models continue to remain my driving forces.