Dr. Willcox is an investigator in the area of geriatrics and gerontology at PHREI and is Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Geriatric Medicine of the John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii. At PHREI, Dr. Willcox is an investigator on the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial and the National Lung Screening Trial.  His research includes the identification of genetic and other factors that lead to a long and healthy life. Dr. Willcox's previous work includes being a lead investigator on the Okinawa Centenarian Study, one of the world’s longest-running and largest studies of hundred-year-olds.

Dr. Willcox received his M.D. from the University of Toronto and his M.Sc. in Neuroscience from the University of Calgary. He subsequently trained in Internal Medicine at the Mayo Clinic and Geriatric Medicine at Harvard Medical School and is board certified in both specialties. He is a Staff Physician at the Queen’s Medical Center and a staff scientist at Kuakini Medical Center.

Dr. Willcox is an author of the “The Okinawa Program,” a NY Times bestselling book that highlighted factors that lead to exceptional longevity in Okinawa. He has been honored with the Dorothy Dillon Eweson Special Lectureship for Advances in Aging Research from the American Foundation for Aging Research and received a Director’s Citation from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. His work was recently featured on the covers of Time Magazine and National Geographic.