May 01, 2017 | News | News

MPIDR researchers awarded Cozzarelli Prize

fltr Roland Rau (MPIDR), Fernando Colchero (Syddansk Universitet), Susan Alberts (Duke University) © 2017 Mark Finkenstaedt

Four MPIDR-researchers have been awarded the Cozzarelli Prize in the category "behavioral and social sciences" by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Cozzarelli Prize is given annually to six papers published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). One of these awards this year goes to the paper “The emergence of longevous populations” by MPIDR-Director Jim W. Vaupel, MPIDR-researchers Roland Rau, Laszlo Nemeth and Alexander Scheuerlein.

The paper, published in the November 2016 issue of PNAS, examines lifespan equality (i.e., a measure of whether lifespans in a population tend to vary a lot or rather resemble each other) for diverse primate populations and human populations. The authors find that lifespan equality rises in lockstep with life expectancy for both primate and human populations. And they show that the male disadvantage in lifespan measures has remained substantial in spite of the progress humans have made in lengthening the lifespan.

The award winners were recognized during the PNAS Annual Meeting Awards Ceremony (April 30, 2017) in Washington, DC, USA. With the award, PNAS aims to acknowledge papers that reflect scientific excellence and originality. The award was established in 2005 and named as such in 2007 to honor late PNAS-Editor-in-Chief Nicholas R. Cozzarelli.

More Information

  • Original article: Colchero, F.; Rau, R.; Jones, O. R.; Barthold, J. A.; Conde, D. A.; Lenart, A.; Nemeth, L.; Scheuerlein, A.; Schoeley, J.; Torres, C.; Zarulli, V.; Altmann, J.; Brockman, D. K.; Bronikowski, A. M.; Fedigan, L. M.; Pusey, A. E.; Stoinski, T. S.; Strier, K. B.; Baudisch, A.; Alberts, S. C.; Vaupel, J. W., The emergence of longevous populations, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 113 (48), E7681–E7690 (2016)
  • Individual lifespans are becoming more similar - Press release (November 22, 2016)

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The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock is one of the leading demographic research centers in the world. It's part of the Max Planck Society, the internationally renowned German research society.