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James F. Nelson, PhD, FGSA, is a professor of cellular and integrative physiology at the Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Dr. Nelson’s research aims to understand the genetic and physiological basis for aging, using nutritional and pharmacologic interventions. Eight of his more than 110 publications have been cited between 500 and 4,100 times. His early work focused on female reproductive aging in mice and humans, with findings that continue to be highly cited. His studies of dietary restriction have identified an important role of hyperadrenocorticism in its anti-aging effects as well as striking genetic variation in its ability to extend lifespan. For over two decades, he has participated in the National Institute on Aging Interventions Testing Program (ITP), which has identified 13 drugs that increase longevity in genetically heterogeneous mice. Many of these compounds are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for other purposes. Dr. Nelson’s current work, analyzing the enormous lifespan dataset of the ITP, has uncovered striking sex differences in the life-extending efficacy of those drugs as well as in the age-specific mortality of the untreated mice that remarkably parallels that of humans. A major focus is to understand the biological bases for these sex differences in aging and drug efficacy, with the long-term goal of improving the lives of all of us as we grow older. Mentoring the next generation of geroscientists is a passion, manifest by his directorship of a PhD training program and the number of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows he has mentored.