On October 4th, 2026, Frontiers in Aging published a new paper co-authored by AFAR Scientific Director Steven N. Austad, PhD, and 2016 Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction recipient and former AFAR Board Member S. Jay Olshansky, PhD, on a potential new Blue Zone in Sardinia. The paper was also co-authored by Blue Zones founder Dan Buettner, who will serve as a guest speaker at AFAR’s upcoming 45th Anniversary Awards Dinner and Roundtable Discussion on December 7th at the Harvard Club, New York.
The paper explored the validated records of those living healthily into their 90s and 100s in the area and focused on the findings of sex specific exceptional longevity, differentiating it from other Blue Zones.
“In Bolotana, we discovered that the life expectancy of females, in particular, is significantly higher than that observed among the longest-lived populations in the world,” Dr. Olshansky shared in a related National Geographic article.
In addition to being AFAR’s Scientific Director, Dr. Austad is the 2011 Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction winner and the Inaugural George M. Martin Award winner. He is the founding director of UAB’s Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging, and co-director of the UAB Integrative Center for Aging Research, as well as the Co-Principal Investigator of the Nathan Shock Centers Coordinating Center.
Dr. Olshansky is the 2016 Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction recipient and a former AFAR Board Member.
Dr. Austad and Dr. Olshansky’s latest paper complements findings by Dr. Austad on the validity of the data of Blue Zones, published in The Gerontologist in December 2025.
Additional peer-reviewed papers co-authored by Dr. Austad and Dr. Olshansky on the Blue Zones are forthcoming.
Read “A new blue zone? exceptional late-life survival in Bolotana, Sardinia” here.
Also picked up by Yahoo!News, read “There's a New 'Blue Zone'—And It Holds Clues to Women's Longevity” in National Geographic, available by subscription only here.
