The British Society of Gerontology is delighted to announce that the BSG Outstanding Achievement Award was this year awarded to Professor Malcolm Johnson, Visiting Professor in Gerontology and End of Life Care in the Department of Social &Policy Sciences at the University of Bath.
Established in 2007, the award is made annually to an individual or organisation that, in the opinion of the judges, has made a significant and lasting contribution to British Social Gerontology.
Professor Johnson has been a long-standing member of the Society, now in its 43rd year and was one of its first Honorary Secretaries. He was instrumental in transforming the organisation from a small scale network of academics to a fully-fledged, well organised national and international learned society. Between 1984 and 1995, he was Professor of Health & Social Welfare and first Dean of the School of Health & Social Welfare at the Open University before moving to a senior position at Bristol University, where he is now Emeritus Professor. He is a former Secretary of the BSA Medical Sociology Group He was also the founding Associate Editor of Sociology of Health & Illness. He has been Distinguished Visiting Professor at several North American and European universities.
In terms of contribution to social gerontology, his influence has been widespread. He produced a number of courses in gerontology at the Open University during the 1980s and 1990s and as head of the Faculty, Professor Johnson played a significant part in the resourcing and launching of these courses. He helped to establish the highly respected journal Ageing and Society, and as its first editor, he played a major part in establishing British gerontology as a respected and viable discipline. His role in producing the Cambridge Handbook on Age and Ageing in 2005 and his many research and policy based writings have ensured that the Society and therefore social gerontology have sustained a strong national and international profile, helping to lay the foundations for the work continued by the society to this day.