SCIENTIFIC ADVISORS
Quest Network's Blue Zones is advised by the world's leading experts on longevity and childhood obesity.
 Dr. Thomas Perls, Lead Scientist
Dr. Perls is a physician and researcher in the study of aging at Boston University Medical School. As Associate Professor in Medicine and a Geriatrician, he cares for older patients at the BMC. Since he first discovered that his centenarian patients were among his healthiest, Dr. Perls has become one of a handful of the world's experts studying these exceptional human beings. For the past eight years he has directed the New England Centenarian Study. He is the author of an award-winning book, Living to 100: Lessons in Living to Your Maximum Potential at Any Age.
 Dr. S. Jay Olshansky, Project Advisor
Dr. S. Jay Olshansky is currently Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Research Associate at the Center on Aging at the University of Chicago and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Olshansky is also listed in Who's Who in Science and Engineering, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare, and American Men & Women of Science.
 Dr. Jack Guralnik, Project Advisor
Dr. Jack Guralnik practiced as a primary care and public health physician prior to his Ph.D. training. He is Board Certified in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine. Before coming to the NIH he did research on predictors of healthy aging in the Human Population Laboratory. He has been in the Laboratory of Epidemiology, Demography, and Biometry at the National Institute on Aging since 1985 and has been the Chief of the Epidemiology and Demography Section since 1991.
 Dr. Luigi Ferrucci, Project Advisor
Dr. Luigi Ferrucci is a scientist at the National Institute for Research and Care of Elderly in Florence, Italy, and is currently Chief Director of Longitudinal Studies at the National Institute on Aging. He is directing America's longest-running scientific study of human aging, which began in 1958.
 Dr. Robert Kane, Project Advisor
Robert Kane, M.D., currently holds an endowed chair in Long-term Care and Aging, directs the Center on Aging and the Minnesota Geriatric Education Center and co-directs University's Clinical Outcomes Research Center. He was Dean of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health from 1985–1990. He serves on the World Health Organization's Expert Committee on Aging. He has received the President's Award from the American Society on Aging and the Polisher Award from the Gerontological Society of America.
 Dr. Margaret Artz, Project Advisor
Margaret Artz, Ph.D., is a research scientist at the Institute for Geriatric Pharmacotherapy and Assistant Professor in the Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Minnesota. She primarily studies the medication use patterns of elders and outcomes related to their use. Dr. Artz is currently evaluating the extent and types of complementary and alternative medications used by community-dwelling elders.
 Dr. Paul T. Costa, Project Advisor
Paul T. Costa, Ph.D., is Chief of the Laboratory of Personality and Cognition, Gerontology Research Center, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, and Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. A University of Chicago Ph.D., Professor Costa taught at Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts at Boston before moving to Baltimore in 1978. His enduring interests are in the structure and measurement of personality and in life-span development. His other research interests include health psychology, personality disorders, and the neurobiology and molecular genetics of personality.
 Dr. Greg Plotnikoff, Project Advisor
Dr. Plotnikoff is Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of MN Academic Health Center. Greg received his master's degree in theological studies at Harvard Divinity School and completed the Youville Hospital Chaplaincy Training Program at Harvard. He earned his medical degree in 1989 at the U of MN Medical School and completed his internal medicine and pediatrics residency in 1993 at the U of MN. His special medical and research interests include Hmong shamanism, Asian medicinal mushrooms as immunopotentiating and tumoricidal agents, and Vitamin D, fatty acids and Omega-3 deficiencies in adults. He is board certified in internal medicine and pediatrics.
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