Jan Michael Hoem (17 April 1939 – 25 February 2017) was a Norwegian scientist in population studies.

Early life

On 17 April 1939, Hoem was born in

Kristiansund Kristiansund (, ; historically spelled Christianssund and earlier named Fosna) is a municipality on the western coast of Norway in the Nordmøre district of Møre og Romsdal county. The administrative center of the municipality is the town of ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. Hoem studied actuarial science and

mathematical statistics Mathematical statistics is the application of probability theory, a branch of mathematics, to statistics, as opposed to techniques for collecting statistical data. Specific mathematical techniques which are used for this include mathematical an ...

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, and was awarded a

Dr.philos. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in 1969.

Career

In 1961, Hoem's academic career began in teaching and Research Assistantships in Statistics at

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

. In 1965, Hoem became a lecturer as Assistant Professor of Theoretical Statistics at the

and later moved on to found and head the Socio-Demographic Research Unit at

Statistics Norway Statistics Norway ( no, Statistisk sentralbyrå, abbreviated to ''SSB'') is the Norwegian statistics bureau. It was established in 1876. Relying on a staff of about 1,000, Statistics Norway publish about 1,000 new statistical releases every yea ...

. From 1974 to 1981 he was Professor at the Laboratory of Insurance Mathematics at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

, followed by a professorship in Demometry at

Stockholm University Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, so ...

. In 1999 he was appointed Director of the

Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) is located in Rostock, Germany. It was founded in 1996 by James Vaupel and moved into new buildings in Rostock in 2002. It is one of approximately 80 institutes of the Max Planck Society ...

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, a position he held until he retired in 2007. Currently he is working as Professor Emeritus at the Stockholm University Demography Unit Before he took his Dr.philos degree, he published a book called “Basic Concepts of Formal Demography”, which became the standard introductory text in demography in Norway. His article on

Markov chain A Markov chain or Markov process is a stochastic model describing a sequence of possible events in which the probability of each event depends only on the state attained in the previous event. Informally, this may be thought of as, "What happe ...

models has been named one of the four most significant papers in modern actuarial science. Hoem also made contributions to stochastic stable population theory, demographic incidence rates, and the statistical analysis of multiplicative models. He is best known for his work on event-history analysis—contributions that have helped shape demographic methodology. Later in his career, Hoem turned towards social demography. In his papers on the impact of social policies on fertility, Hoem showed that the stringent application of appropriate methods to individual-level data greatly improve our understanding of the link between public policies, demographic behavior, and demographic outcomes. He died on 25 February 2017 in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

after a long illness.

Awards

In 2006 he was awarded the IUSSP

Laureate In English, the word laureate has come to signify eminence or association with literary awards or military glory. It is also used for recipients of the Nobel Prize, the Gandhi Peace Award, the Student Peace Prize, and for former music direc ...

Award An award, sometimes called a distinction, is something given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An awar ...

in recognition of his achievements in scientific research.IUSSP Laureate Award

References

External links

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Stockholm University Demography UnitWebpage of IUSSP
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoem, Jan 1939 births 2017 deaths Norwegian demographers Academic staff of the University of Oslo Academic staff of the University of Copenhagen Academic staff of Stockholm University Norwegian expatriates in Denmark Norwegian expatriates in Sweden Norwegian expatriates in Germany People from Kristiansund