Dr. Zachary Zimmer, Professor – Family Studies and Gerontology at Mount Saint Vincent University

Dr. Zimmer talks about his international research currently being undertaken in Vietnam.

Download Dr. Zimmer’s CV (January 2023)

Dr. Zachary Zimmer began a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Global Aging and Community in 2016.  Zimmer received a PhD in Sociology with a concentration on Social Demography in 1998 from the University of Michigan.  Since that time he has held positions at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, The Population Council in New York, The University of Utah and the University of California at San Francisco.  Over the course of his career he has taught courses in demography, aging, health policy, research methods and statistics. Dr. Zimmer’s research focuses on global issues related to the health and general well-being of older persons, studied from a demographic perspective.  Much of his work has taken place in East and Southeast Asia where population aging and socioeconomic change has been swift and where older adults face many obstacles related to the changing nature of their social environment. He has also examined aging issues in sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe and the United States.  His work has been published in journals across a number of disciplines, such as gerontology, sociology, demography, medicine and epidemiology. A unique aspect of Dr. Zimmer’s career has been his work across environments with collaborative teams from universities, government agencies and research organizations around the world, which includes capacity building efforts.  Zimmer classifies his specific interests as falling within the following streams of research:

  • Population aging and demographic change in developing societies
  • Life and health expectancy
  • Disablement, functioning and pain
  • Health disparities
  • Intergenerational relations
  • Migration
  • Impacts of harsh living condition on the aging experience