TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Barbara Berkman, Columbia University professor of social work and renowned scholar on aging issues, will present the lecture, “Research on Gerontological Assessment Revisited: A Personal Odyssey 1966-2004,” Thursday, April 21 at noon in 104 Little Hall on The University of Alabama campus.

Berkman’s lecture, presented by the UA School of Social Work, will look at aging issues and research done over this period of time that included the advent of Medicare and Medicaid, increasing numbers of elderly, and the growth of social work services.

She is currently the Helen Rehr/Ruth Fizdale Professor of Health and Mental Health at Columbia University School of Social Work and adjunct professor of community and preventive medicine at Mount Sianai School of Medicine in New York.

Berkman has directed 23 federally and foundation supported research projects focusing on issues in geriatric care and is principal investigator and director of the John A. Hartford Foundation’s Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholars Program.

She is the former director of the Ruth D. and Archie A. Abrams Interdisciplinary Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and the associate director of the Geriatric Education Center in the division on aging at Harvard Medical School.