Paul Baltes

Paul B. Baltes ( born June 18, 1939 in Saarlautern (now Saarlouis ); † 7 November 2006 in Berlin ) was a German psychologist and one of the leading gerontologists worldwide. He was a member of the Senate of the Max Planck Society.

Life

Baltes studied psychology at the University of Saarland in Saarbrücken and received his PhD in then until 1967. Upon his graduation, he spent 12 years as a professor of psychology and gerontology at several U.S. universities. He was Department Head of Human Development at Pennsylvania State University in 1972. Baltes 1980 Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. From 1980 to 2004 he directed the Center for Developmental Psychology. In 2005 he founded the International Max Planck Research Network on Aging Research.

The research focus of Paul Baltes was mainly the intellectual development across the life span, the study of wisdom, and methodological innovation. Along with his first wife Margret M. Baltes (1939-1999), Professor of Psychological Gerontology at the Psychological Institute of the Free University of Berlin, he established a theory of successful development in aging as a combination of selections, optimization, and compensation.

Internationally known Baltes was due to the method introduced by him " Testing the Limits ", a methodology for the realization of plasticity biopsychosocial developments. Together with Neil J. Smelser, he edited the 26 -volume International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, which was published in Elsevier.

Baltes was, among others, co-founder of the Berlin Aging Study and Margret M. Baltes and Paul B. Baltes Foundation. He died at the age of 67 after a long battle with cancer.

Honors

He has received numerous academic awards, honors, honorary doctorates and was honored with the Order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Since 2000, he engaged as Vice President of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, in which he was a member since 1992. He was the founder of the "Young Academy ", a joint venture of the Berlin- Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and the Leopoldina.

In 2000, Baltes was awarded the Longevity Prize of the IPSEN Foundation. On 16 October 2001 to him by Culture Minister Julian Nida- Rümelin the Federal Cross of Merit was awarded with star.