Roy Walford - Career Highlights

Career Highlights

Walford is credited with significantly furthering aging research by his discovery that laboratory mice, when fed a diet that restricted their caloric intake by 50% yet maintained nutritional requirements, almost doubled their expected life span.

He received his medical degree from the University of Chicago in 1948. He completed his internship at Gorgas Hospital, Panama, and served his residency at the V.A. Medical Center in Los Angeles. He then served two years in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War.

Walford joined the faculty at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1954. He became a Professor of Pathology at the UCLA School of Medicine in 1966. He became Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Emeritus, for UCLA, when he left to join the crew of Biosphere 2 in 1991.

While at UCLA, Walford served in the following roles:

• Director of the Blood Bank and of the Hematology Division of the Clinical Laboratories (1959–1980)
• Director of the School of Medical Technology (1962–1972)
• Chairman of the Vivarium Committee (1965–1968)

In addition to his service at UCLA, he was an expert advisor in immunology for the World Health Organization from 1969 to 1984, was a senatorial delegate to the White House Conference on Aging in 1981, and a member of the National Institute on Aging.

His honors and awards include:

• Levine Award of the American Society of Clinical Pathology
• Research Award of the American Aging Association
• Kleemeier Award from the Gerontological Society of America
• Henderson Award from the American Geriatrics Society
• The Senator Alan Cranston Award
• Infinity Award of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine
• Asteroid #4629 was named after him by its discoverer (E. Helene) in 1986

Walford and his work were featured in print in dozens of articles in popular publications such as Omni, Discover, and Scientific American. During his life he also made dozens of featured appearances on various television shows.