Sarah Harper, co-director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, professor of Gerontology at the University of Oxford and senior research fellow at Nuffield College, will give a talk titled “Preparing for our Future Selves: How 21^st Century Demographics Will Change our Lives” on March 24 at 4:30 p.m. in the Davis Center’s Livak Ballroom on the University of Vermont campus.

The talk is free and open to the public.

Harper’s research interests focus on globalization, global ageing and the impact of population change, in particular the implications at the global, societal and individual level of the shift in population ages from predominantly young to predominantly older societies. Particular research interests are the impact of this demographic shift on intergenerational relationships and work.

“Sarah Harper’s research on the impact of a global aging population is insightful and important,” said former Vermont Governor Madeleine Kunin, a UVM Marsh Professor–at-Large and co-sponsor of the lecture. “I’m delighted that she is coming to the University of Vermont.

Harper, a world authority on aging and its implications for society, has spoken at World Economic Forums in China and Australia, presented various TED and TED-linked talks, and been a keynote speaker at numerous academic conferences. She was invited to give the 2012 Oxford-London Lecture on the subject of population change.

Harper serves on the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, currently chairs the United Kingdom’s Government Foresight Review on Ageing Societies and the European Ageing Index Panel for the UNECE Population Unit, and is a governor of the Pensions Policy Institute. She was the first holder of the international chair in Old Age Financial Security at the University of Malaya (2009/10), and her research was recognized by the 2011 Royal Society for Public Health: Arts and Health Research Award.