Malcolm Johnson receives award for outstanding contribution to gerontology

A member of MHA’s Board has received a prestigious award from the British Society of Gerontology.

Professor Malcolm Johnson, who is Visiting Professor of Gerontology and End of Life Care and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bath, received the Annual Prize for Outstanding Contribution from the British Society of Gerontology (BSG). He started his second term as an MHA Board Member in July 2010 and co-edited MHA’s book God, Me and Being Very Old.

On receiving the Award, Prof Johnson said, “'It is an honour to be recognised by my peers, especially the scholars, teachers and researchers I respect, and the Society which has been so important in sponsoring a serious understanding of ageing and old age.”

The Award is presented each year to a person or organisation who has made a significant and lasting contribution to British Social Gerontology. Prof Johnson is a longstanding member of the BSG.

Prof Johnson is a widely published academic social gerontologist. He was Professor of Health and Social Policy at the University of Bristol until 2002 and has been Professor of Health and Social Welfare for the Open University.

He was one of the BSG’s first Honorary Secretaries. The organisation said that he had been “instrumental in transforming the organisation from a small scale network of academics to a fully-fledged, well organised national and international learned society”.

Prof Johnson helped to found the journal Ageing and Society and was its first editor, helping to place British gerontology as a respected discipline. He produced a number of courses on the subject for the Open University in the 1980s and 1990s. In addition, he was involved in producing the Cambridge Handbook on Age and Ageing in 2005.

He has over 20 years of experience as a senior manage in universities, and also has experience as a non-executive director of a care provider with voluntary agencies.

A member of the United Reformed Church (URC), he spent six years as Convenor for Church and Society. He has also been Convenor for Education and Learning and a member of URC Mission Council since 2007.