Dear APRU Colleagues,

Following last year's successful symposium hosted by University of Tokyo (UT) on "Strategies for "Aging in Place": Networking of Junior Gerontologists in the Pacific Rim Countries", I am pleased to inform you that Seoul National University (SNU) and UT are co-organizing an APRU research symposium on a related theme from October 19-23, 2009. 

Hosted by SNU, the symposium will center on "Challenges and Opportunities of Aging Asia: Towards the New Social System and Culture for Aging Society" in Seoul, Korea. The symposium aims to form an international and multi-disciplinary network of junior gerontologists in the Pacific Rim, and will include lectures, papers, poster sessions, site visits and a research proposal competition.

Research Proposal Competition

Participants will have the opportunity to form teams and develop research proposals promoting interdisciplinary, comparative research in gerontology. The results of the competition will be revealed on the last day of the symposium and the team with the best proposal will be awarded a research grant of US$10,000.

Eligibility

Junior researchers and professionals who have interest in working in an interdisciplinary and international research project on gerontology are welcome to register their interest. Participants should satisfy the following criteria:

1.       Be affiliated with a college, university or research organization in the Pacific Rim. Those who have academic and practical interest, and experience are particularly welcome; and

2.       Been in the gerontology field for approximately 2 to 10 years.

Registration

There are 40 places available for the symposium. The deadline for registration is July 31, 2009. Interested participants can send the attached application form to Dr Joohyun KIM at: seoul_2009geron@hotmail.com, by July 31. Please note that the official language is English.

A limited amount of travel awards is available for participants from APRU universities. Interested participants can contact Dr Kim at the email address given above. The Organizing Committee has the discretion to select participants for the conference as well as recipients of the travel awards.

More information on the symposium can found at: http://tgrrc.snu.ac.kr/conference/menu1.php. Queries can be sent to Dr Kim at: seoul_2009geron@hotmail.com.

Tentative Schedule

• July 31: Deadline of submission
• August 15: Notice of Acceptance (via email)
• September 15: Distribution of preliminary program
• October 19-23: Conference

We urge you to encourage your university’s junior gerontologists to actively participate in this symposium. We would appreciate it if you would forward information on this symposium to the relevant departments/faculty in your university.

We look forward to your university's participation.

Sincerely,

Ken McGillivray

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Dr. Kenneth J. McGILLIVRAY

Secretary General

Association of Pacific Rim Universities

APRU Secretariat

application_form.doc