Berkeley is widely recognized as one of the leading centers of demographic training and research in the US and the world. Our graduates hold academic positions at leading universities and demographic research centers in departments of sociology, economics, anthropology, demography, history, public health, and statistics. Most are strongly committed to research that is solidly in demography, rather than in other subjects with only peripheral ties to demography. The training faculty includes three members of the National Academy of Sciences, two Mindel C. Sheps Award recipients, one John Bates Clark Medal recipient, and holders of many other honors and awards. Among the training faculty, 3 have primary appoints in the Department of Demography, 6 in Public Health, 4 in Economics, 2 in Sociology, 3 in Public Policy, and 1 in the Business School. The heart of the program lies in the Department of Demography, whose faculty has a strong tilt towards formal demography, and mathematical and statistical modeling. But the program is deeply interdisciplinary with a hub-and-spoke structure, and a newly strengthened focus in population health among faculty in Public Health. Trainees are drawn from a variety of departments and disciplines. Some trainees get a PhD in Demography per se, others in the joint Demography and Sociology PhD program. Trainees earning PhD's in other departments do course work in Demography where they earn the MA or do a specialized field, often while supported on the training grant. All Demography PhD students must do an MA in an outside department of their choice. Time from entry to PhD is typically 4 to 6 years, and trainees typically receive two years of support but up to four years in certain cases. Trainees are typically recruited into the program after their first or second year of their PhD program. As in the past, support is requested for six predoctoral trainees and no postdoctoral trainees.
Demography studies the processes that shape populations and the consequences of the characteristics of populations. This program trains students in such topics as the causes and consequences of trends in immigration, disparities in health and mortality, fertility, family structure, forecasts of population, fiscal impacts of population change, population-environment interactions, and population and economic development. All of these are important for public health.
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