|One way to summarize the astounding improvements in survival at
older ages is to look at the numbers of centenarians and super-
centenarianspeople who live to age 110 and beyond. How many
centenarians will there be in the world on Jan. 1, 2000? James
Vaupel asked at a seminar earlier this month. Many wont be
celebrating vigorously, of course, but there will be about
100,000 of them, said Vaupel, whose work is at the intersection
of the biological and social sciences.| The talk by Vaupel,
described as a true Renaissance person whose work is at the
intersection of the biological and social sciences, was co-
sponsored by the Population Studies Center, part of the
Institute for Social Research, and the recently formed
Geriatrics and Aging Research Consortium, an interdisciplinary
group convened by Jeffrey Halter, director of the Geriatrics
Center. Before 1950, there was rapid progress in reducing
mortality at younger ages, said Vaupel, who is executive
director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research