The Population Studies Center of the University of Michigan requests a five-year renewal of its training program in the demography and economics of aging. Michigan has one of the oldest population centers in the United States, with a distinguished record in domestic and international population research and training. The University's highly ranked social science departments and professional schools, combined with the unique strengths of the Institute for Social Research, provide PSC with an exceptionally rich environment for research and training in the demography of aging. The Center's current group of faculty is arguably the strongest and certainly the most interdisciplinary in its history, makin major contributions in many areas of research in the economics and demography of aging. The proposed training program will provide specialized demographic training to selected predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees. The predoctoral training program is based in the doctoral programs in sociology, economics, and public health. Students combine the specific doctoral requirements of their disciplines with additional specialized training in demography through a combination of formal coursework, informal seminars, and a research apprenticeship program grounded in PSC's rich interdisciplinary environment. Postdoctoral training, which is provided to researchers from a variety of disciplines, is coordinated with a faculty mentor and includes course work, seminars, and collaborative or independent research. This proposal seeks support for 8 predoctoral and 4 postdoctoral trainees per year, the same number of slots we have in our current grant. A major focus of our program is socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic disparities in health - a focus facilitated by the addition of public health into the program. The recent record o the program in terms of trainee recruitment and professional placement is excellent, with trainees moving into top academic and non-academic positions and producing high-quality research published in leading journals. Our record of recruitment, retention, and placement of under-represented minority trainees is particularly strong.
This long-standing and established training program will produce scholars with a broad perspective on population science, particularly as it applies to issues of aging and lifespan, who will seek to incorporate interdisciplinary and translational components into their research. The ability of the trainees to assimilate their knowledge of demography and populations within the scope of their own particular disciplines will enable the dissemination of this type of research and perspective within academia, government, and industry.
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