Pienta made her discovery as the winner of this year's Rose Weinstein Memorial Award sponsored by the UB Emeritus Center. Entries were based on research in gerontology.

Presentation of the award, which includes a prize of $200, took place at the retiree group's final formal meeting of the school year May 14 at the Emeritus Center in Goodyear Hall, South Campus.

Pienta holds a postdoctoral fellowship at Pennsylvania State University in a program funded by the National Institute on Aging.

Her winning dissertation, "Labor Force Behavior of Married Women in Later Life," was developed under the guidance of Jeffrey A. Burr, associate professor in UB's Department of Sociology. Contest rules require that entries be created under the supervision of a UB faculty member.

As Burr explains, Pienta, using the most recent national survey data available, discovered that women who have had positive career work experiences tend to stay in the labor market longer than men. In addition, the study shows that married men and women tend to coordinate their labor force decisions, so that women with working husbands (as opposed to husbands who are voluntarily retired) are more likely to continue working.

Chairman of the Emeritus Center's Scholastic Awards Committee which selected the winning contest entry is Constantine Yeracaris, UB professor emeritus of sociology.

The late Rose Weinstein, for whom the award is named, was one of the founders of the Emeritus Center.