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Vern Bengtson Receives Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award
USC Davis School of Gerontology and sociology professor emeritus honored at the 27th annual USC Academic Honor Convocation
Vern Bengtson, professor emeritus of gerontology and sociology, received the USC Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award at the 27th annual Academic Honor Convocation on April 7, 2008.
"I came to USC 40 years ago as the first faculty member hired for the brand-new (Andrus) Gerontology Center, and I have grown up with it," Bengtson said after receiving the award at the Town and Gown ceremony. "I'll always be grateful to Jim Birren, the founder and first dean, who hired me as a 25-year-old bursting with energy and naivety."
Awarded to a select number of retired faculty members, the honor recognizes eminent careers and notable contributions to the university, the profession and the community.
During his career at USC, Bengtson, who retired in 2007, established himself as a scholarly giant in the fields of gerontology, sociology and family studies. His four decade study of intergenerational relationships was continuously renewed by the National Institutes on Health, accumulating well over 10 million dollars in funding and receiving MERIT status, a rare honor granted only the top scientists funded by NIH.
"The Andrus Gerontology Center has provided a wonderful home for my research and a satisfying base for teaching. I can't think of a better academic environment," Bengtson said.
His intergenerational research, considered peerless for its creativity and prodigious record of publication, has supported dozens of graduate research assistants. In addition, he founded and for many years directed, the Multidisciplinary Training Program in Aging Research at the USC Davis School. As a mentor and teacher, Bengtson won several top teaching awards and received many glowing teaching evaluations. He was widely considered one of the best instructors in both the College and the USC Davis School.
Bengtson was elected president of the Gerontological Society of America in 1990, and has won many top honors for distinguished scholarship from the main professional bodies of his discipline.
"Vern Bengtson is the kind of USC faculty member for whom lifetime achievement awards are designed. His contributions to the sociology of aging are seminal as have been his contributions over the years to the USC Davis School of Gerontology. What is sometimes overlooked in a scholar with a prodigious vita is that Vern was a gifted and committed instructor, a bold exemplar of how top-flight research enhances teaching and vice versa. His daily appearances around here are missed," said Gerald C. Davison, dean of the USC Davis School of Gerontology.
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