Thomas Scharf PhD, FAcSS

Professor Thomas Scharf of Social Gerontology in the Population Health Sciences Institute, Scharf co-led Newcastle University's Centre for Ageing and Inequalities. Scharf joined Newcastle in 2016, having previously been Director of the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, NUI Galway, Ireland (2010-15). Scharf completed undergraduate studies in Combined Honours (German and Politics) at Newcastle University in 1985 before moving on to Aston University where Scharf was awarded a PhD in Political Science in 1990. Scharf has since held teaching and research posts at Bangor University, Keele University and the University of Applied Sciences in Worms, Germany.

From 2019 to 2022, Scharf President of the British Society of Gerontology Scharf a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences has held visiting professorships at NUI Galway, the University of Manchester, Keele University and the University of Vienna, and sat on the Advisory Board of the German Ageing Survey (DEAS).