Professor Vanessa Burholt, Professor of Gerontology at Swansea University’s College of Human and Health Sciences, is one of 51 leading social scientists that have received the award.

Professor Burholt is Director of the Centre for Innovative Ageing (CIA) at the University, which provides a centre of excellence for research and training in the study of ageing. Her areas of expertise include intergenerational relationships, support and social relationships, rurality, attachment to place, housing and migration of older people including ethnic minority elders and she has published widely in these areas.

The Academy of Social Sciences is the national Academy of academics, learned societies and practitioners in the social sciences. Academicians have a wide range of expertise in the social sciences, including education, urban studies, social policy, gerontology, law, politics, sociology, criminology, geography and linguistics.

It has over 900 individual Academicians, who are distinguished scholars and practitioners from academia and the public and private sectors. They are given this status after a peer group has reviewed the standing and impact of their work. Academicians are entitled to put letters “AcSS” after their name.

Professor Burholt said of her award: “I have spent 18 years undertaking research with older people and using the results of my research to influence social policy. While my research has demonstrable impact on the quality life and wellbeing of older people, today, I am delighted that my accomplishments in advancing gerontological knowledge and theory have also been recognized through the award of the status of Academician in the AcSS.”