Joseph F. Coughlin

Joseph F. Coughlin, Ph.D. is founding Director of the MIT AgeLab – a multidisciplinary partnership between MIT, industry and the aging community to engineer innovative approaches and technologies to improve the quality of life of older adults and those that care for them. The Lab’s industry sponsors are from around the world and include information technology and telecommunications firms, the food and beverage industry, retailers, pharmaceutical companies, consumer products manufacturers, financial services, medical device firms, and the automotive industry.

Dr. Coughlin’s own research seeks to develop new business and policy strategies that respond to the demands of today’s and tomorrow’s older adults and caregivers. He has published in a variety of business, technology and policy journals. Supported by both The Hartford Financial Services Company and the US Department of Transportation University Transportation Centers Program, he recently co-authored a book with Roger W. Cobb on the transportation needs of an aging society with Johns Hopkins University Press. He is currently editing a second volume with Michael E. Kafrissen on measuring quality of life in older populations and authoring a third book where he shows how business and government will leverage the convergence of technology and evolving boomer lifestyles to reshape how all of us will live, work and play tomorrow. Dr. Coughlin speaks to business and government audiences throughout the world describing the implications of aging and technology on business strategy and public policy. He often serves as a keynote and plenary speaker – including the annual meetings of the American Geriatrics Society, AARP Board of Directors, National Governors Association, National Press Club Foundation, American Telemedicine Association, Health Insurance Association of America, The Freedom Forum, National Home Builders Association, American Senior Housing Association, COMDEX, the White House Conference on Technology and Aging and US Senate Committee on Aging.

He conducts research and consults regularly on strategy and product development to a wide range of firms across industries, including the AARP, Alzheimer’s Association, AT&T, IBM and the American Business Collaborative for Quality Dependent Care, Ace Insurance, Bell Canada, BMW, EDS, DaimlerChrysler, Johnson & Johnson, MasterFoods, MetLife, Motorola, Nissan, Procter & Gamble, RAND, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He is a Board member of the American Geriatrics Society Foundation for Healthy Aging, DaimlerChrysler’s Technology Advisory Board, the National Academy of Sciences Steering Committee on Technology for Adaptive Aging and leads the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development’s (OECD) Working Group on Technology and Older Persons. Dr. Coughlin teaches strategic management and public policy in the Engineering Systems Division at MIT. Prior to joining MIT he was with EG&G, (now PerkinElmer), a Fortune 1000 science and technology firm, consulting to industry and government worldwide. Dr. Coughlin is a graduate of the State University of New York, Brown University and Boston University.