Dr. Craig Willcox is an investigator in the area of geriatrics and gerontology at PHREI. His research explores the influence of genotype on telomerase expression and rate of telomere attrition in Okinawans, one of the world’s longest lived populations. Dr. Willcox resides in Okinawa and is a Co-Principal Investigator on the Okinawa Centenarian Study, one of the world’s longest-running (since 1976) and largest studies of hundred-year-olds. Dr. Willcox has extensive local experience in bio-cultural approaches to healthy aging, epidemiology, and human population genetics. The Okinawa Centenarian Study, an ongoing study of the genetic and environmental correlates of exceptional longevity, identified the first gene to be associated with human longevity (Takata et al. Lancet 1987).

Dr. Willcox received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and his M.H.Sc. in Public Health Epidemiology from the University of the Ryukyus. He is a Professor of Public Health (Epidemiology) and Gerontology at the Okinawa International University. He serves on the editorial board of Journals of Gerontology: Series A Biological and Medical Sciences (Gerontological Society of America) and Gerontology (International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics). Dr. Willcox is one of the authors of the “The Okinawa Program,” a NY Times bestselling book that highlighted factors that lead to exceptional longevity in Okinawa.