Karl Pillemer

Senior Associate Dean for Research and Outreach, College Human Ecology, Hazel E. Reed Professor, Human Development, and Professor, Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine Link

Faculty Affiliate, Center for Aging and Policy Studies

CAPS Biography:

My expertise fits well with the signature themes of family and intergenerational support and health and well-being. My career-long research interests focus on human development over the life course, with a special emphasis on fostering positive family and social relationships in middle age and beyond. I have conducted a 30-year program of research in the area of life course transitions and the effects they have on family relationships. My major studies have focused on the determinants and consequences of the quality of adult child – older parent relationships; the nature and dynamics of family caregiving for impaired older relatives; relationships between family members of residents with staff in long-term care facilities; and pain management and palliative care. I am also actively involved in intervention research and in translational research, exploring ways to speed the transfer of findings from basic research into scientifically tested interventions. For the past 15 years, I have served as an important link between Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell’s Ithaca Campus. Through my activities as co-Director of a NIA Roybal Center, we have created an extensive and vigorous collaboration between researchers in clinical geriatrics and social and behavioral scientists from over a dozen departments at Cornell.