By Vincent Lim
Vern Bengtson, a senior scientist with the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging at the USC School of Social Work, is the recipient of the 2014 Eugene Litwak Award from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
Each year, a distinguished social scientist whose research addresses the social dimensions of health and illness is honored by Columbia’s Mailman School and invited to give a public lecture. The event was established in honor of Eugene Litwak, professor emeritus of public health, social work and sociology at Columbia.
“I am particularly gratified by this award because of my lifelong admiration for Professor Gene Litwak,” Bengtson said. “He was a pioneer in research on aging, families and health, and in many ways shaped the field for those of us who followed him.”
Litwak developed one of the earliest graduate programs in aging and made major contributions to bring together social and medical sciences with the goal of addressing key public health questions.