Stephen M. Golant

Stephen M. Golant, Ph.D., FGSA, is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Florida (Gainesville) and was earlier an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago. With a robust academic background in gerontology, he is steadfastly committed to improving older adults' lives and helping to create residential and care environments that resonate with their lifestyles and capabilities.

His contributions have included a holistic, emotion-based theoretical model to understand why older people age in place or move, a model to predict older people's adoption of gerontechnological solutions, and most recently, a commentary predicting how the introduction of gerontechnological solutions will transform older people's dwellings into "control centers" connecting them with their outside worlds and making them more salient and positively experienced places to live.

Dr. Golant is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and a Fulbright Senior Scholar award recipient. In 2012, he received the Richard M. Kalish Award from the Gerontological Society of America for his insightful and innovative publications on aging and life development in the behavioral and social sciences. In 2024, he received the M. Powell Lawton Award funded by the Polisher Research Institute of Abramson Senior Care, which recognizes significant contributions in gerontology leading to innovations in gerontological treatment, practice or service, prevention, and amelioration of symptoms or barriers.

Dr. Golant has written or edited more than 150 papers and books, including most recently, Aging in the Right Place, published by Health Professions Press.

He has been a consultant or adviser to various firms, universities, state government agencies, and national organizations, including advising the Congressionally appointed Commission on Affordable Housing and Health Facility Needs for Seniors in the 21st Century (Seniors Commission).

Print and Web-based media have often featured his research and ideas, and he is currently a regular contributor to Booming Encore, a blog designed to support and help baby boomers live their best lives.