Patricia Moore is an internationally renowned gerontologist and designer, serving as a leading authority on consumer lifespan behaviors and requirements. For a period of three years, Moore traveled throughout the USA and Canada disguised as an old woman, documenting the prejudices she faced in her 1985 book, “Disguised”. Through her own firsthand experiences of ageism, she began advocating for a new form of product design, which later became known as Universal Design.

Moore holds undergraduate degrees in Industrial and Communication Design, Rochester Institute of Technology, completion of Advanced Studies in Biomechanics, NY University’s Medical School; and graduate degrees in Psychology & Gerontology, Columbia University. Moore was awarded Doctor of Fine Arts, Syracuse University, as a “guiding force for a more humane and livable world, blazing a path for inclusiveness, as a true leader in the movement of Universal Design” in 2012. Hasselt University awarded Moore a PhD (2019); Sheffield Hallam University in 2021.

Selected as one of The 40 Most Socially Conscious Designers in the world; featured as one of 50 Americans Defining the New Millennium (ABC World News) Moore was named one of The 100 Most Important Women in America (2000) and was inducted into “INNOVATORS Hall of Fame” (2012). Moore is a Fellow of the Industrial Designers Society of America and in 2016 was named one of The Most Notable American Industrial Designers in the history of the field.

Moore was honored with Cooper Hewitt’s prestigious National Design Award in2019; she also received the Center for Health Design 2020 CHANGEMAKER Award. In 2022, the National Association of Schools for Art and Design honored Moore with their Citation Award and the World Design Organization selected Moore for the World Design Medal which was presented at the 2023 World Design Congress in Tokyo.