Dr. Zachary Zimmer has received a seven-year renewal on his Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Global Aging and Community years at Mount Saint Vincent University. Dr. Zimmer moved to Halifax to begin his Tier 1 CRC in July of 2016 and has since been the Director of the Global Aging and Community Initiative and Professor of Family Studies and Gerontology at MSVU.
Dr. Zimmer received a PhD in Sociology with a concentration in Social Demography in 1998 from the University of Michigan. He held positions at a number of universities and scholarly organizations before arriving at MSVU. Recent recognitions include:
- being named one of the world's top-ranking Social Sciences and Humanities scientist by Research.com;
- a Research Excellence award by Mount Saint Vincent University;
- an Isaac Manasseh Meyer Fellowship from the National University of Singapore; and
- recognition for his outstanding research by the Journal of Gerontology.
Dr. Zimmer has been awarded extensive research funding from the Canadian Tri-Agencies, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the United Nations, and several private funding organizations.
Broadly, his research applies a global demographic perspective to concerns of health and wellness of older persons worldwide. Recent endeavors include investigating religiosity and spirituality among older adults, effects of early-life wartime trauma on later-life health, trends in chronic pain, and intergenerational relationships in societies undergoing socio-demographic change. He has published well over 100 articles in journals that cross disciplines, such as gerontology, sociology, demography, public health, medicine, and epidemiology.
Dr. Zimmer brings to MSVU a strong spirit of collaboration and a reputation for research excellence that extends globally.
Examples of Dr. Zimmer's recent publications include:
- Early-life war exposure and later-life frailty among older adults in Vietnam: Does war hasten aging, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences (selected as the Editor's Choice Article for the issue);
- War exposure: An under-appreciated determinant of population health in Asia, Asian Population Studies; and
- A global study of pain prevalence across 52 countries: Examining the role of country-level contextual factors, PAIN (selected as the Editor's Choice Article for the issue).
