Prof. Dr. Susanne Wurm

Profile

I am regularly asked if it is possible to stop or even to turn back aging with the help of medication. Behind this question is the understandable desire to live a healthy and long life – however, the question also mirrors a problematic view on aging: Aging as disease. Unfortunately, such a view can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we see the future in terms of decline and increasing disease, we are less motivated to live healthily. This means that we are more likely to develop diseases; this has been shown by numerous of our studies.

We cannot simply stop aging, but we can do something about negative expectations: If we associate aging, for example, with more time for the family, new interests or more mobility in daily life, this encourages a healthier lifestyle. That applies to private as well as professional life. We take this into account in our interventions, which offer prevention measures like, for instance, programs to promote exercise.

Of course, older employees and their supervisors, physicians, therapists or nurses also have their views on aging which impact their work. In this way, views on aging also affect work, transition into retirement and health care.

We therefore need higher awareness of the impact of these individual views and societal age stereotypes. I am working on this with my preventive research. With realistic, positive views on aging and old age we cannot overcome aging per se, but we can promote health and thus prolong life and improve quality of life, as has been demonstrated in existing studies. 

Research Topics

  • Health in middle and later adulthood
  • Preventive and interventional approaches for healthy aging
  • Views on Aging (Self-perceptions of Aging, Age Stereotypes)
  • Psychosocial resources and risks in their importance for health and health behavior
  • Older workers and transition into retirement
  • Life-span developmental psychology, age and cohort effects

Vita

Since 10/2019
Chair and Director of the Department of Prevention Research and Social Medicine, Institute for Community Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald

2013 - 2019
Professor of Psychogerontology, Deputy Director of the Institute of Psychogerontology, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg

2013
Offer of a chair at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Psychogerontology)

2012 - 2013
Deputy Head of Research, German Centre of Gerontology (DZA), Berlin

2011 - 2013
Head of Research Group “Health and Aging“, DZA Berlin

2008 - 2014
Principal Investigator of the Research Projects PREFER I +II (Personal Resources of Elderly People with Multimorbidity: Fortification of Effective Health Behaviour), DZA, Berlin

2007 - 2013
Deputy Director German Ageing Survey (DEAS)

2001 - 2006
Research Scientist, German Centre of Gerontology (DZA), Berlin

2000
Research Scientist, Institute for Applied Research on Family, Childhood and Youth, Berlin

1998 - 2001
Research Scientist, Berlin Institute for Social Research

Awards

2018
Offer of a chair at University Medicine Greifswald (Prevention Research and Social Medicine), Institute for Community Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald (accepted)

2018
Offer of a chair at University of Konstanz (Developmental Psychology, refused)

2016
Margret M. and Paul B. Baltes Foundation Award in Behavioral and Social Gerontology, Gerontological Society of America (GSA)

Since 2016
GSA-Fellow der Verhaltens- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Sektion der Gerontologischen Society of America (GSA)

2013 - 2019
Offer of a professorship of Psychogerontology, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (accepted)

Since 2013
Honorary Associate des Deutschen Zentrums für Altersfragen (Berlin)

Scientific collaborations and networks

Membership in scientific associations

Scientific collaborations and networks

Member of Advisory Boards and Commissions

Since 2024
Member of the scientific advisory board of the German Ageing Survey (DEAS) at the German Centre of Gerontology (DZA), Berlin

Since 2021
Member of the scientific advisory board for the online self-help community DepriBuddy

Since 2021
Member of the initiative “Together for Psychological Health”

Since 2008
Chair of the Commission "Health Reporting and Health Monitoring" of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Berlin

Since 2008
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board "Work, Age, Health and Labor Participation (AAGE)" for the project "lidA - Life at Work. Cohort Study on Health and Aging at Work" (PI: Prof. H. M. Hasselhorn, University of Wuppertal)

2015 - 2022
Member of the Advisory Board of the Prevention Network "AEQUIPA - Physical Activity and Health Equity: Primary Prevention for Healthy Ageing" funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

2017 - 2021
Member of the Advisory Board of the project "Successful = healthy = good aging? Views on aging and premises of gerontological and socio-political discourses on aging in Germany" (PIs: PD Dr. M. Schweda, University of Göttingen, and Dr. L. Pfaller, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg), funded by the Federal Ministry of Health

2018 - 2021
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the project "BURDEN 2020 - The burden of disease in Germany at the national and regional level", Robert Koch Institute, Berlin

2016 - 2019
Member of the Advisory Board of the project “Improving Health Monitoring in Old Age” (IMOA) of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), funded by the Robert Bosch Foundation

Editorial Boards

European Journal of Ageing, Contemporary Clinical Trials, GeroPsych – The Journal of Gerontopsychology and Geriatric Psychiatry, Journal of Health Monitoring

Ad-hoc Journal Reviewer

among others: Age & Ageing, Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, American Journal of Epidemiology, Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Das Gesundheitswesen, Developmental Psychology, Gerontology, GeroPsych, European Journal of Ageing, Experimental Aging Research, Experimental Gerontology, Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, Journal for Labour Mar­ket Research, Journal of Affective Disorders, Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, Journal of Geriatrics, Journal of Health Psychology, Journals of Gerontology: Psychological and Social Sciences, Psychology and Health, Psychology and Aging, Re­search on Aging, Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, Scientific Reports, The Journal of Positive Psychology, PLOS ONE, Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie

Consulting for scientific institutions, foundations and research funding associations

among others: German National Academy of Sciences, German Research Foundation (DFG), DLR Project Management Agency, European Science Foundation (ESF), German Academic Scholarship Foundation, Thyssen Foundation, Robert Koch Institute, Scientific Commission of Lower Saxony/Lower Saxonian Ministry of Science and Cultur

Mentoring

Promotion of women

Mentoring of a postdoctoral researcher (Dr. Wenke Liedtke) from the field „Ethics and their didactics“ at the Theological Faculty within the Women Mentoring Program of the University Greifswald (2024-2025)

Mentoring of a postdoctoral researcher (Dr. Iris Blotenberg) from the German Centre of Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) within the Women Mentoring Program of the University Greifswald (2022-2024).

Mentoring of a postdoctoral researcher (Dr. Susanne Kabatnik) in German Linguistics in the Women Mentoring Programm of the University of Greifswald (2020-2021)

Mentoring of a doctoral student (Hadil Lababidi) in Islamic-Religious Studies with a focus on text studies and norms in the ARIADNE phil program for promotion of women in science, at the University of Erlangen- Nuremberg (2017-2019)

Mentoring for young scientists in the context of other mentoring programs

Mentoring of a postdoctoral researcher (Dr. Larissa Zwar) from the Hamburg Center for Health Economics, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, within the frame of an international mentoring program (2022-2024)

Mentoring of a doctoral student (Johanna Seemer, Nutritional Sciences) in the Life@FAU Graduate School for Life Sciences at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (2019-2021)

Mentoring of a doctoral student (Sebastian Krumpoch, Sports Science) in the Life@FAU Graduate School for Life Sciences at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (2019-2021)

Doctoral theses (Dr. rer. med., Dr. phil./PhD)

Moritz Gehring (since 2023), Laura Jesgarz (since 2022), Frauke Meyer-Wyk (since 2022), Ann-Kristin Reinhard (since 2023)

Annika Dümmler, Simon Clemens, Paula Wundersee, Marie Zech

Eva Mennig, M.Sc. Gerontology (since 2019): Self-rated health of older surgical patients

Dr. rer. med. Anne Blawert, M.Sc. Gerontologie (2022): Personality and Self-Perceptions of Aging in Later Life, Universitätsmedizin Greifswald.

Dr. phil. Ann-Kristin Beyer, M.Sc. Psych. (2019): Personal Resources, Health Behavior and Health in Older Adults, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-fau/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12527. Present: Research Scientist at the Robert Koch Institute, Berlin.

Dr. phil. Dipl.-Psych. Svenja Spuling (2017): The Changing Conceptualization of Self-Rated Health. Shifting Prediction Patterns for Self-Rated Health in the Second Half of Life. Present: Research Scientist at the German Centre of Gerontology, Berlin.

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