Bio and Featured Works
Carlos Mendes de Leon, PhD is a Research Professor in the Department of Oncology at Georgetown University School of Medicine. Dr. Mendes de Leon is a social epidemiologist with a primary interest in the major health changes and health disparities in late life. His work focuses on a broad spectrum of social and psychological determinants that affect the development and progression of health outcomes in older age, including cognitive impairment and dementia, functional limitations and disability, longevity and quality of life.
Dr. Mendes de Leon completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, with a final degree (MA) in clinical psychology. He continued his graduate training in Preventive Medicine and Community Health at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX, receiving his doctoral (PhD) degree in 1989. He continued with post-doctoral training in the epidemiology of aging at the Yale University School of Public Health. After completing his post-doctoral fellowship, he joined the faculty at the School of Public Health at Yale as Assistant Professor in the Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology. From there, he moved to Rush University Medical School in Chicago, where accepted a position as Associate Professor, and as of 2005 as Full Professor, of Internal Medicine (Epidemiology) and Preventive Medicine. He also served for 3 years as the Director of the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging. In 2011, he moved to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI to become Professor of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health. He started his current position as Research Professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine in 2022.
His current work includes two new international cohort studies of dementia and aging in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), one in Lebanon and one in Nepal. These studies, both supported by a R01 grant from the national Institute on Aging, are part of a broader network of population studies of aging around the globe, known as the HRS International Family of Studies. Both studies involve the establishment of large cohorts of several thousands older adults and include the comprehensive assessment of a series of physical, social, and behavioral risk factors for dementia and other health conditions that affect adults as they age. The studies have a primary focus on the role of stressful life conditions throughout the life-course in dementia risk in later life, with a particular emphasis on prolonged exposure to civil-war violence in Lebanon, and international labor migration in Nepal. Another area of primary interest involves the effect of mid-life social and work experiences on retirement transitions and health outcomes in later life.
Dr. Mendes de Leon has received continuous funding for his research from external grants since 1992, including grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He has completed rotations as a standing member on two NIH study sections (CASE and NAME) and served on multiple other NIH grant and program review panels as an ad-hoc reviewer. He is an active member of professional organizations in the fields of gerontology, epidemiology, and population health sciences, having served on the editorial board of several scientific journals in these disciplines.