The Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies (HCPDS) is an interdisciplinary center at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, affiliated with the

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. The school grew out of the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's first ...

. The Center houses several post-doctoral programs, including the David E. Bell Fellowship, Sloan Fellowship on Aging and Work, and previously the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars program.

History

The Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies was founded in 1964 by the Harvard School of Public Health (now the

) under the direction of Dean Jack Snyder and director

Roger Revelle Roger Randall Dougan Revelle (March 7, 1909 – July 15, 1991) was a scientist and scholar who was instrumental in the formative years of the University of California, San Diego and was among the early scientists to study anthropogenic global ...

with a mandate to address issues of population control. Over the years, the Center’s intellectual concerns have evolved, in broad strokes by decades, to address the following themes:Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies: About Us: History
/ref> *1960s: Population growth, water resources, reproductive biology *1970s: Population and resources; migration *1980s: Health transitions in developing countries *1990s: Reproductive health, common security, and the global burden of disease *Early 2000s: Well-being of the global poor; health in Africa *2008- : Social and environmental determinants of population health; immigration; aging societies; and health effects of workplace policies, especially as they pertain to women

50th anniversary and symposium

As a celebration of its 50th anniversary, the Center for Population and Development Studies honored several individuals who played important roles in the development of the Center, including: *Lincoln Chen, MD, MPH, former director of the Center for Population and Development Studies from 1988-1996 and Taro Takemi Professor of International Health at the

Harvard School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. The school grew out of the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's first ...

. He was honored for his work as former Director of the Center, which included engaging the Center more directly in international policy research, as well as his work in the publication of several landmark global population books.Celebrating 50 Years: Commemorative Issue: 1964-2014
/ref> *Mary Paci, daughter of former HCPDS Director

and member of the Center for Population and Development Studies's advisory committee. She was honored for her work as a long-term member of the advisory committee of the Center and continued support of funding initiatives at the

. *

Sissela Bok Sissela Bok (born Myrdal; 2 December 1934) is a Swedish-born American philosopher and ethicist, the daughter of two Nobel Prize winners: Gunnar Myrdal who won the Economics prize with Friedrich Hayek in 1974, and Alva Myrdal who won the Nobel Pea ...

, philosopher, ethicist, writer, and former Senior Visiting Fellow at the Center for Population and Development Studies. She was honored for her work at the Center, including research that contributed to the field of ethics and population study, as well as the convening of a number of workshops and seminar series. In addition, the Center hosted a 50th anniversary symposium entitled "Reimagining Societies in the Face of Demographic Change," which concerned recent demographic challenges faced by communities in the 21st century, including a rapidly aging global population, women's health and declining fertility, and initiatives the Center for Population and Development Studies is pursuing to help address these challenges. Some of the keynote speakers at the symposium included: *

Julio Frenk Julio José Frenk Mora (born December 20, 1953) is president of the University of Miami and has served in this role since 2015. He is the University of Miami's first Hispanic and native Spanish-speaking president. At the University of Miami, he ...

, MD, PhD: Former Dean of Faculty at the

and T & G Angelopoulos Professor of Public Health and International Development, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Kennedy School *Lisa Berkman, PhD: Director, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies; Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy, Epidemiology, and Global Health and Population,

Babatunde Osotimehin Babatunde Osotimehin (6 February 1949 – 4 June 2017) was a Nigerian physician, who served as Minister of Health, and in 2011 became the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, holding the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the ...

, MD: Executive Director,

United Nations Population Fund The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), formerly the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, is a UN agency aimed at improving reproductive and maternal health worldwide. Its work includes developing national healthcare strategies ...

(UNFPA); Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations *

Jack Rowe John Charles "Jack" Rowe (December 8, 1856 – April 25, 1911) was an American professional baseball player, manager and team owner from 1877 to 1898. He played 12 years in Major League Baseball, as a shortstop (657 games), catcher (298 games), ...

, MD: Professor of Health Policy and Management,

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health The Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health is the public health graduate school of Columbia University. Located on the Columbia University Medical Center campus in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, the school ...

; chair, MacArthur Foundation Research Network on An Aging Society *

Michael Marmot Sir Michael Gideon Marmot (born 26 February 1945) is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London. He is currently the Director of The UCL Institute of Health Equity. Marmot has led research groups on health inequa ...

, MBBS, MPH, PhD, FRCP, FFPHM, FMedSci: Director, Institute of Health Equity,

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

Leadership

Current director

Social epidemiologist Lisa Berkman was appointed director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies by Harvard Provost Steven E. Hyman in October 2007. Berkman is the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy, Epidemiology, and Global Health and Population at the

(formerly the Harvard School of Public Health). She was chair of the School’s Department of Society, Human Development and Health from 1995 – 2008. Recognized for her groundbreaking work in the field of social epidemiology, she is noted for identifying the effects of social networks on mortality risks that helped define the field in the late 1970s. Berkman also broadened the field with her investigations of how social conditions related to inequality, race, ethnicity, and social isolation influence health and aging.Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies: About Us: People: Director
/ref> Before coming to the Harvard Chan School in 1995 to head what was formerly the Department of Health and Social Behavior, Berkman was head of the department of chronic disease epidemiology at

Yale School of Medicine The Yale School of Medicine is the graduate medical school at Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. The primary te ...

. A graduate of

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

, Berkman received her master’s and doctorate in epidemiology from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. She joined the Yale faculty in 1979 as an assistant professor. She is currently president of the Association of Population Centers, a member of the

Institute of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, E ...

, and serves as chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the

National Institute on Aging The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), located in Bethesda, Maryland. The NIA itself is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The NIA leads a broad scientific effort to understand the ...

of the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

. She is a past president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research.

Previous directors

Current work

Over the past 50 years, the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies has shifted in its concerns about overpopulation and has expanded its focus to examine relevant questions involving demographic shifts, resources, health, and the environment. The Center continues to rely strongly on a robust cadre of multi-disciplinary faculty to advance the field of population science. Although it covers an array of topics, the Center addresses some of the world’s leading population and demographic challenges by focusing on the following five research focal areasHarvard Center for Population and Development Studies: Research
/ref> * Social & Environmental Determinants of Population Health * Aging Societies * Population Mobility: Migration in a Global Economy * Lifecourse Perspective * Work, Health, and Well-being

Major projects

Current major projects of the Center include: *Adversity and Resilience after Hurricane Katrina: This longitudinal study analyzes social demographic markers of low-income parents who lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. *Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa (HAALSI): This study follows and tests a cohort of Agincourt residents for HIV infection and cardiometabolic disease risk factors, then integrates that data with mortality data to study the drivers and consequences of HIV and non-communicable diseases in an aging population in Agincourt, South Africa.Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies: Major Projects
/ref> *The Program on the Global Demography of Aging (PGDA): Housed at the HCPDS, the Program on the Global Demography of Aging (PGDA) is funded by a NIH grant, and provides support for research on demographic and aging throughout the world with a particular focus on developing countries.

Postdoctoral fellowships

*David E. Bell Fellowship: Named in honor of the late David E. Bell, former Harvard School of Public Health professor and former director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. the Bell Fellowship Program provides opportunities for research and leadership training in a flexible, 1 or 2 year, non-degree program for researchers and practitioners in the field of population and development. Bell Fellows examine a broad range of critical issues in the field of population and development studies from multidisciplinary perspectives. *Sloan Fellowship on Aging and Work: Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, this interdisciplinary, postdoctoral fellowship addresses the challenges of aging societies and labor force participation.Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies: Postdoctoral Fellowships: Sloan Fellowship
/ref>

References

{{Authority control Harvard University