Expert on Aging Focuses on Diet and Cancer April 13

Hogarty Lecture Offered Through Cancer Research Center

ALBANY, N.Y. (April 05, 2011) --

Expert on aging Steven Austad once discovered that opossums age at an incredibly rapid rate, turning from adults into decrepit codgers in less than a year. Looking at why some animals, like opossums, age faster than others, he uses this knowledge to help people see the connections between caloric intake, physical activity, longevity and cancer prevention.

Dr. Steven Austad, an expert on aging, will focus on diet and cancer at the Hogarty Lecture, which is free and open to the public.

Austad will deliver the third annual Hogarty Family Foundation Lecture on April 13 at 7:15 p.m. in the George Education Center Auditorium on the East Campus of the University at Albany School of Public Health, One Discovery Drive, Rensselaer. The event is free and open to the public.

Austad is a professor at the Barshop Institute for Longevity & Aging Research and the Department of Cellular & Structural Biology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

An endowed fund established through the generosity of Daniel J. Hogarty and the Hogarty Family Foundation provides support for a public lecture program through UAlbany’s East Campus-based Cancer Research Center. The Hogarty Family Foundation lectures present a broad range of topics related to cancer, cancer genomics and cancer research.

About Dr. Steven N. Austad: After earning a bachelor’s degree in English literature, Austad enjoyed a variety of unusual jobs, ranging from taxi driver in New York City to lion trainer in Hollywood. This latter experience reawakened his interest in what makes animals tick and led him to graduate school in biology. He began his faculty career as an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University, doing field research in the U.S., South America, and Papua New Guinea.

He later moved to the University of Idaho, before assuming his current position in 2004. Today, his research focuses on the cellular and molecular biology of aging in a wide range of animal species.

Austad has a passion for communicating the excitement of science to the lay public. He has written for National Wildlife, Natural History, International Wildlife, Scientific American, and the National Geographic Society. His trade book on aging, Why We Age, published by John Wiley & Sons in 1997, has been translated into seven languages. He has lectured widely, served on the Science Advisory Board of National Public Radio, and helped design museum exhibitions on aging. He is at work on a book analyzing the criminal justice system from the perspective of a scientist.

Seating for the Hogarty Foundation Lecture is limited. Please R.S.V.P. by April 8 to (518) 442-5373 or [email protected].