astronomy

S. Jay Olshansky

S. Jay Olshansky is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand S. Jay Olshansky rather than just read about it. In short: Stuart Jay Olshansky is an emeritus professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago concentrating on biodemography and gerontology and was co-founder and chief scientist at Lapetus Solutions, Inc. He is also a research associate at the Center on Aging (University of Chicago) and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Key takeaways

S. Jay Olshansky belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect S. Jay Olshansky to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of S. Jay Olshansky from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Stuart Jay Olshansky is an emeritus professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago concentrating on biodemography and gerontology and was co-founder and chief scientist at Lapetus Solutions, Inc. He is also a research associate at the Center on Aging (University of Chicago) and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Olshansky is an associate editor of the Journal of Gerontology: Biological Sciences and Biogerontology and is a member of the editorial boards of several other scientific journals. Olshansky has been working with colleagues in the biological sciences to develop the modern "biodemographic paradigm" of mortality – an effort to understand the biological nature of the survival and dying out processes of living organisms. The focus of his research has been on estimates of the upper limits to human longevity, exploring the health and public policy implications associated with individual and population aging, forecasts of the size, survival, and age structure of the population, pursuit of the scientific means to slow aging in people (The Longevity Dividend), and global implications of the re-emergence of infectious and parasitic diseases, and insurance linked securities.

Biography Olshansky was born on February 22, 1954. He attended Michigan State University and was awarded a B.S. in psychology in 1975. He then attended the University of Chicago and was awarded a M.S. in sociology in 1982. He received his Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Chicago in 1984. His work on biodemography has been funded by a Special Emphasis Research Career Award and an Independent Scientist Award from the National Institute on Aging and a research grant from the U.S. Social Security Administration starting in 1991. In 2011 he published an article on the longevity of United States presidents in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Olshansky was the recipient of a 2005/2006 Senior Fulbright Award to lecture in France. In 2010 he was made fellow of the Gerontological Society of America; and in 2016 he received the Irving S. Wright Award from the American Federation for Aging Research [1] and the Kent Award from the Gerontological Society of America. Olshansky has been a vocal supporter of scientific attempts to increase the human healthspan. He is an advocate for prolonging the healthy life-span compared to increasing the overall length of life as such. In an interview he advocated for further study of calorie restriction, genetic study of humans centenarians, and for further study on life extension and senescence. He is co-author with Bruce A Carnes of The Quest for Immortality: Science at the Frontiers of Aging (Norton, 2001) and with Jim Kirkland and George Martin he co-edited "Aging: The Longevity Dividend", published in 2015.

Lifespan Bet On September 15, 2000, after American biologist Steven N. Austad was quoted in Scientific American as saying "The first 150-year old person is probably alive right now", he and Olshansky made their famous Lifespan Bet on whether someone born before the year 2000 will still be living and be of sound mind on January 1, 2150. Austad bet in favor. Olshansky took the view that it was unlikely anyone would live past 130. Austad and Olshansky put $150 each into an investment fund, with the money and interest to go to the winner, or his descendants, in 2150. They later staked another $150 each.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with S. Jay Olshansky

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what S. Jay Olshansky claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to S. Jay Olshansky before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about S. Jay Olshansky ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of S. Jay Olshansky

In research: S. Jay Olshansky appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses S. Jay Olshansky in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: S. Jay Olshansky is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1954 births, American demographers, American sociologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for S. Jay Olshansky outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study S. Jay Olshansky in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what S. Jay Olshansky means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain S. Jay Olshansky out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is S. Jay Olshansky in simple terms?

Why does S. Jay Olshansky matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study S. Jay Olshansky?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on S. Jay Olshansky.