Robert Neil Butler 4097057 195776327 2008-03-04T11:07:42Z SmackBot 433328 Date the maintenance tags or general fixes {{Refimprove|date=March 2008}} '''Robert Neil Butler''' (born [[January 21]], [[1927]]) is a [[physician]], [[gerontologist]], [[psychiatrist]], and [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning [[author]], who was the first director of the [[National Institute on Aging]]. Dr.&nbsp;Butler is known for his work on the social needs and the rights of the elderly and for his research on healthy aging and the dementias. == Background == Having grown up with his grandparents, Butler was shocked by the dismissive and contemptuous attitude toward the elderly and their diseases by many of his teachers at [[medical school]], an attitude he later characterised as "[[ageism]]". He graduated from [[Columbia College of Columbia University]], where he was editor of the [[Columbia Daily Spectator]] and a member of the [[Philolexian Society]]. == Career == Dr. Butler was a principal investigator of one of the first [[interdisciplinary]], comprehensive, [[longitudinal studies]] of healthy community-residing older persons, conducted at the [[National Institute of Mental Health]] (1955-1966), which resulted in the landmark book ''Human Aging''. His research helped establish the fact that [[senility]] was not inevitable with [[aging]], but is a consequence of [[disease]]. In 1975, he became the founding Director of the [[National Institute on Aging]] (NIA) of the [[National Institutes of Health]], where he remained until 1982. At the National Institute on Aging he established [[Alzheimer's Disease]] as a national research priority. In 1982, he founded the Department of [[Geriatrics]] and Adult Development at [[Mount Sinai School of Medicine|The Mount Sinai Medical Center]], the first department of geriatrics in a [[United States]] [[medical school]]. In addition, Dr. Butler helped found the Alzheimer's Disease Association, the American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry, the American Federation for Aging Research and the Alliance for Aging Research. In 1990, he established the U.S. branch of the [[International Longevity Center]] (ILC) at Mount Sinai Medical Center. In 1998 it became a separate [[501(c)(3)]] institution affiliated with Mount Sinai. == Publications == Dr. Butler is best known for his 1975 book ''[[Why Survive? Being Old In America]]'', which won the [[Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction]] in 1976.<ref Name="Pulitzer">{{cite web | title = Pulitzer Prize Winners: General Non-Fiction | work = | publisher =pulitzer.org | date = | url =http://www.pulitzer.org/ | format =web | doi = | accessdate = 2008-02-28 }}</ref> A 2003 paperback edition is currently available (ISBN 0-8018-7425-4). Other recent books by Dr.&nbsp;Butler include ''Aging and Mental Health: Positive Psychosocial and Biomedical Approaches'' (with Myrna I. Lewis and Trey Sunderland, 1998), ''Life in an Older America'' (2001) (ISBN 0-87078-438-2), and ''The New Love and Sex After 60'' (with Myrna I. Lewis, 2002) (ISBN 0-345-44211-3). Dr. Butler is the author of 300 [[scientific]] and [[medical]] articles.{{Fact|date=March 2008}} ==References== {{reflist}} == See also == *[[International Longevity Center]] *[[Geriatrics]] *[[Gerontology]] == External links == *[http://www.ilcusa.org/ International Longevity Center-USA ] <!-- Categories --> [[Category:1927 births|Butler, Robert Neil]] [[Category:Living people|Butler, Robert Neil]] [[Category:American academics|Butler, Robert]] [[Category:Gerontologists|Butler, Robert]] [[Category:Medical academics|Butler, Robert]] [[Category:Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction winners|Butler, Robert Neil]] [[Category:Columbia University alumni|Butler, Robert Neil]]