2025 award winners are listed below.
Instructions and deadlines for 2026 award nominations will be announced in the future.
Matilda White Riley Distinguished Scholar Award
This annual award honors a scholar in the field of aging and the life course who has shown exceptional achievement in research, theory, policy analysis, or who has otherwise advanced knowledge of aging and the life course.
The 2025 winner is Neal Krause (Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan).
2025 Nomination Process: To nominate a colleague for the MWR Distinguished Scholar Award, submit a full nomination letter and copy of the nominee’s CV by March 1, 2025.Letters of nomination should describe the nominee’s contributions to the study of aging and the life course that warrant consideration. If multiple persons wish to nominate a person, we strongly encourage co-signers on a single nomination letter. Nominations will be carried over for consideration for the award for two years beyond the year of the initial submission of the nomination package.
Materials should be sent to Patricia Thomas, Chair of the Matilda White Riley Distinguished Scholar Award Committee, at pthomas4@purdue.edu. Other committee members include Marc Garcia, Emma Zhang, and Seoyoun Kim.
Outstanding Publication Award
This annual award honors an outstanding recent contribution to the field of sociology of aging and the life course as determined by the Outstanding Publication Award Committee.
The 2025 award is for an article by Rachel Donnelly (Vanderbilt University), Zhiyong Lin (University of Texas at San Antonio), and Debra Umberso (University of Texas at Austin):
Donnelly R, Lin Z, and Umberson D. 2023. “Parental Death Across the Life Course, Social Isolation, and Health in Later Life: Racial/Ethnic Disadvantage in the U.S.” Social Forces 102(2):586-608.
2025 Nomination Process: Eligible publications include original research reports, theoretical or methodological developments, and policy-related contributions. The outstanding publication can be an article or book chapter published within the past three years (from 2022-2024) are eligible for the 2025 award.
A single author or one of the coauthors must be a SALC member. Multiple entries cannot be submitted by the same author(s); please choose the strongest entry. Only SALC members are permitted to make nominations, but nominators should make only one nomination. Self-nominations are accepted. Papers that have been uploaded as Advance Access articles but have not yet been published cannot be submitted until next year.
A nomination letter should accompany a PDF of the article or chapter. The letter should provide the full citation, describe the scope of the manuscript, and highlight some of its contributions to the field. Nominations of publications for the award should be sent to Patricia Drentea, Chair of the Outstanding Publication Award Committee, at pdrentea@uab.edu. Other committee members include Pamela Herd, Ronald Berkowsky, and Han Liu. All nominations are due by March 1, 2025.
Graduate Student Paper Award
This annual award honors an outstanding paper written by a graduate student member(s) of SALC, as determined by the Graduate Student Paper Award committee. The award consists of $250 presented to the winner at the SALC Business Meeting, held during the annual ASA meeting.
The 2025 award is for a paper by Jane Furey (University of Michigan):
“The Consequences of Racialized Education Careers: How Educational Upgrading Maintains Black-White Economic Inequality”
2025 Honorable Mention: Facundo Suenzo and Sino Esthappan (Northwestern University):
“Generationally Mediated Dating: Middle-Aged Men Manage Changes in Technology and the Risks of Sexual Visibility Over Time”
2025 Nomination Process: Papers authored or coauthored solely by students are eligible; faculty co-authorship is not allowed. Eligible student authors include master’s and pre-doctoral student members of the section who are currently enrolled in a graduate program, or who have graduated no earlier than December 2024. Unpublished, under review, accepted, or published papers are eligible. If published, the paper should have appeared within the past two calendar years (e.g., a paper nominated in 2025 may have been published anytime in 2023 or later). Unpublished papers should not exceed 9,000 words of text (not including references, tables, etc).
To be nominated, send an electronic version of the paper along with a completed and signed SALC Grad Student Paper Award Nomination Form (found at https://asasalc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/salc_grad-student_award.pdf) to Lance Erickson, Chair of the Graduate Student Paper Award Committee, at lance_erickson@byu.edu. Other committee members include Catherine Garcia, Christine Mair, Vanessa Delgado, and Xuemei Cao. All nominations are due by March 1, 2025, and self-nominations are encouraged.
SALC Outstanding Mentoring Award
SALC has a rich legacy of mentoring, both of students and junior faculty. We want to honor this history by recognizing SALC members who have distinguished themselves as mentors in the field of aging and the life course.
The 2025 winner is Kenneth Ferraro (Purdue University).
2024 Nomination Process: Submit a nomination of a candidate by March 1, 2025. The nominee’s CV should be included with the nomination materials. Letters of nomination should describe the nominee’s contributions to mentoring in the area of aging and the life course that warrant consideration. If multiple persons wish to nominate a person, we strongly encourage co-signers on a single nomination letter and for co-signers to include short specific personal descriptions of how the nominee has mentored them. We also urge those preparing nomination letters to indicate where co-signers are working now and to think broadly about types of mentorship and the contributions of that mentorship for promoting diversity and inclusion in the discipline and beyond. Specifically, letters should describe mentorship experiences over the range of the nominee’s career, including but also going beyond mentorship provided around research and for graduate students, and include specific details regarding the nominee’s mentorship. Nominations will be carried over for consideration for the award for two years beyond the year of the initial submission of the nomination package.
Nominations can be sent to Susan Brown, Chair of the Outstanding Mentor Award Committee, at brownsl@bgsu.edu. Other committee members include Mallory Bell and Rebecca Utz.
Public Impact Award
This award recognizes the work of a SALC member at any stage of their career who has demonstrated impact in applied research or improving lives through aging and/or life course scholarship. Examples of impact could be through, for example, community-engaged research, education of future professionals or stakeholders, policy engagement, and/or effective research translation for the greater public good. The winner must be a member of the Section on Aging and the Life Course at the time of the award.
The 2025 winner is Scott Landes (Syracuse University).
2025 Nomination Process: Submit a full nomination letter by March 1, 2025. Letters of nomination should describe the nominee’s contributions to public impact through aging and life course scholarship that warrant consideration. If multiple persons wish to nominate a person, we strongly encourage co-signers on a single nomination letter. Nominations will be carried over for consideration for the award for two years beyond the year of the initial submission of the nomination package.
Materials should be sent to Dawn Carr, Chair of the SALC Public Impact Award Committee, at dccarr@fsu.edu. Other committee members include Markus Shaffer, Merril Silverstein, Christine Mair, Jennifer Ailshire, and Ranran He.
ASA Section on Aging & the Life Course 