Rudi Westendorp

At a glance

• Rudi Westendorp is a Dutch physician and professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Copenhagen, previously at Leiden University Medical Center. He is one of Europe’s most cited authors on human ageing.
• He worked on the Leiden 85-plus Study and co-founded the Leiden Longevity Study of families with exceptionally long-lived siblings.
• With Tom Kirkwood he published a study in Nature (1998) of British aristocratic families that pointed to a trade-off between longevity and number of children.
• He founded the Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing, which links research and education on healthy ageing.
• In his book Oud worden zonder het te zijn (2014, ‘Growing old without being old’) he argues that ageing is malleable: life expectancy has been rising for a long time, and environment and behaviour help determine how vital we stay.
• For longevity, he matters because he shifts the debate from ‘old and ill’ to vitality, independence and a supportive environment.
• Takeaway: set up your home and daily life so that you stay active and independent as you get older.