Robert Butler - Dr. Robert N. Butler is the ILC-USA's President and CEO. As a gerontologist and psychiatrist, Dr. Butler recognized discrimination against the elderly as early as 1968, coining the term 'ageism'.
Eight years later, the publication of his Pulitzer-prize-winning Why Survive? Being Old in America solidified his reputation as someone who foresaw the impact that aging would have on American society.
A founding director of the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health, as well as the nation's first department of geriatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Dr. Butler often consults for television and radio. He is the author of some 300 scientific and medical articles.
People in developed nations have gained an average of 30 additional years of life during the 20th century, the greatest advance in longevity in 5,000 years of human history.
But are we as a society prepared to handle this remarkable change?
World-renowned gerontologist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Butler will examine the challenges this creates: the adjustments that have been made, what will need to be done in the future, and possible threats to our longevity- The Commonwealth Club of California