Dr. Magaziner received his doctoral degree in 1980, from the Committee on Human Development at the University of Chicago, where he was a trainee in adult development and aging.  In 1982, he received a M.S.Hyg. in epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.  His scientific strengths and leadership in geriatrics have been demonstrated in many ways since he joined the faculty of the School of Medicine in 1982.  Dr. Magaziner is credited with developing the Division of Gerontology in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, which he currently leads.

In 1998, Dr. Magaziner was named by the UMB President and Dean of the School of Medicine as Co-Director of the Center for Research on Aging, a university-wide center whose mission is to stimulate and coordinate involvement and collaboration among faculty of the six health professional schools at UMB in research and research training in gerontology, and to establish and strengthen collaborations among investigators conducting research in aging at UMB and other UM campuses.  The center emphasizes research and research training which require interdisciplinary approaches to current issues critical in aging research and which transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries.

Dr. Magaziner pursues research on aging in three interrelated areas:  the consequences of hip fracture, health and long-term care, and methods for studying older populations.  The major focus of this work is to identify ways of enhancing functioning and improving the quality-of-life for older persons.  The specific conditions which Dr. Magaziner has targeted are hip fracture and dementia.  His work on hip fracture focuses on issues relating to hip fracture recovery and has earned him a MERIT award from the National Institute on Aging.

Dr. Magaziner has taught graduate courses in gerontology, the epidemiology of aging, and the epidemiology of late life psychiatric disorders.  He is Co-Director of the two-campus Gerontology Doctoral Program and Director of a pre- and post-doctoral training program in the Epidemiology of Aging supported by the NIA.

He has served in many leadership positions locally and nationally, including the Governor's Commission on Aging Services in Maryland and the board of the Maryland Gerontological Association, where he served as president in 1989-90.  Dr. Magaziner was a founder of the University of Maryland at Baltimore Long-Term Care Project, an umbrella organization established in 1984 to recruit and oversee research in Maryland nursing homes.  In 1986, he wrote the UMB gerontologic research agenda for the next decade and chaired the research committee of the GGEAR Program from 1986-1990 and 1992-1996.

On the national level, Dr. Magaziner is well-recognized for his leadership and expertise in the epidemiology of aging.  He has published extensively in internationally recognized journals and has served as a reviewer for the Veterans Administration, ADAMHA, Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR), and National Institutes of Health on a series of special review panels.  He also has been a regular member of the NIH's Epidemiology and Diseases Control Study Section, which he chaired from 2001-2005.