Project Title: Epigenetic Mechanisms Linking Lifetime Social and Environmental Exposures to Cognitive Aging
Position: Assistant Professor
Institution: University of Texas at Austin
Funding NIH Institute/Center: National Institute on Aging
Grant ID: K99AG076964
Mateo P. Farina attended high school in rural Oklahoma, where he became interested in health and aging after volunteering with a local hospice organization. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University, during which he became interested in the impact of social and policy contexts on health as well as how historical processes have shaped racial inequalities in the United States and Brazil. Dr. Farina completed his PhD at the University of Texas at Austin, where he focused on demography and the social determinants of aging through a life course perspective. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Southern California’s school of gerontology, Dr. Farina returned to the University of Texas at Austin where he is currently an assistant professor. As a sociologist, demographer, and gerontologist, he seeks to understand how life course exposures impact physiological and cognitive aging with attention to differences in life course pathways across racial and ethnic groups. Dr. Farina is also excited about promoting and supporting diversity in the sciences; he currently mentors several graduate students from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds.