Population Research Training

ABSTRACT Patterns of reproductive health, fertility, investment in children, morbidity, and mortality vary substantially by age, race, ethnicity, gender, economic status, and other axes of stratification—a reality that emerged particularly clearly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The methods and approaches of population science, which are rooted in the tools of demography but draw also from empirical approaches of biostatistics, epidemiology, and economics, are essential for understanding the causes and consequences of these patterns of population health and well-being. In this renewal application, we propose continuation of the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary Population Science Training Program housed at the Carolina Population Center. The goal of the program is to train the next generation of population scientists to conduct critical research on the causes and consequences of population change and the implications for health and well-being across the globe. Cross-disciplinary collaboration and hands-on involvement in innovative population science research are defining features of our program. Our training faculty represent 11 different academic departments, roughly balanced between social science and public health disciplines; our trainees themselves are equally diverse. The predoctoral program combines disciplinary PhDs with a strong grounding in population science through coursework, seminars, and workshops and a mentored research practicum with one or more faculty members that continues throughout training. The postdoctoral program is structured around a close mentoring relationship between the training faculty and postdoctoral scholars, customized to fit the goals and interests of both. We seek continued support for seven predoctoral trainees and two postdoctoral scholars, a level well- justified by the competitiveness of the current program and the outstanding productivity and placement of prior trainees. With substantial guidance from the training director, training manager, and their faculty preceptors, trainees in our program leave with the subject matter expertise, interdisciplinary orientation, team science approach, data skills, and population perspective to conduct creative and rigorous research to improve human health and well-being in the US and beyond.