To that end, [Caleb Finch], professor of gerontology and biological sciences at USC's Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center and also an adjunct professor in the USC School of Medicine, is the first holder of the Arco-William F. Kieschnick chair in the neurobiology of aging.

Finch, 46, who also is participating in a national study of successful aging funded last fall by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, joined USC's Andrus Center-one of the nation's most prestigious institutions in the study of gerontology-in 1972. He brought impressive credentials: a bachelor's degree from Yale University and a doctorate in cell biology from Rockefeller University. He is co-director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center Consortium of Southern California, one of four national centers funded by the National Institute on Aging, and he has received numerous prestigious professional awards.

Finch, who lives with his wife in Altadena, is reticent to talk about his private life-except to say that he has two grown stepsons and that he is a professional musician. A traditional Appalachian Mountain fiddler, Finch, with Caltech biologist Eric Davidson and Brooke Moyer, who trains cutting horses, formed the Iron Mountain String Band, which has recorded three albums and performed the music for Jane Fonda's TV movie "The Dollmaker."