History

The University of Chicago and NORC have a long standing history of interdisciplinary research in the demography and economics of aging. Linda Waite, PhD, George Herbert Mead Distinguished Service Professor in Sociology at UChicago and Senior Research Scientist at NORC, led the NIA-funded Center on Aging at NORC from 1997 until 2013. In 2020, the center was redeveloped and funded as the new Center on Healthy Aging Behaviors and Longitudinal Investigations (CHABLIS) under the direction of David Meltzer, MD, PhD, Fanny L. Pritzker Professor of Medicine, and Kathleen, Cagney, PhD, Professor of Sociology and Senior Research Scientist at NORC, and moved administratively to the Center for Health and the Social Sciences at UChicago. CHABLIS maintains a close partnership with NORC and draws on research expertise from the Biological and Social Sciences Divisions, Booth School of Business, Harris School of Public Policy, and School of Social Service Administration.

CHABLIS Organizational Structure

CHABLIS comprises four cores: 

• Administrative Core, which oversees and evaluates all aspects of the center
• Program Development Core, which focuses on providing research and career development support to early-career faculty and supporting pilot projects that span the demography and economics of aging in both medical and social science realms
• External Innovation Network Core, which draws on existing research programs such as the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project (NSHAP) and the Comprehensive Care Physician (CCP) Program to create opportunities for exchange and research synergies between these two different forms of data collection and research
• Research Resources Support and Dissemination Core, which is a joint effort with the Duke Center for Population Health and Aging (CPHA). Its goal is to identify, design, conduct and assess innovations in data collection and measurement for use in current and future data-focused studies of aging, and share those findings immediately