News

Scott M. Lynch, Professor of Sociology, has been awarded a five year Center Grant funded by the Division of Social and Behavioral Research of the National Institute of Aging, securing ongoing support for the Center for Population Health and Aging (CPHA) at Duke. With a legacy that extends well over four decades, CPHA  provides a synergistic, interdisciplinary environment for advancing cutting-edge research and cultivating faculty and students focused on the study of aging through network of population scientists from the social and behavioral sciences and the biological, health, and statistical sciences at Duke.

Christopher Wildeman, Professor of Sociology, joins Duke University  and  the Duke University Population Research Institute (DUPRI) as its newest Faculty Scholar. Wildeman comes to Duke from Cornell University where he was Professor of Policy Analysis and Management in the College of Human Ecology and Professor of Sociology (by courtesy). He was also Director of the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, Director for the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN), a position he will continue to hold from Duke, and Associate Vice Provost for the Social Sciences.

Kenneth C. Land, John Franklin Crowell Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology and DUPRI Scholar, is the new Chair-Elect to the American Sociological Association (ASA) Evolution, Biology and Society (EBS) Section. The EBS section is designed to improve dialogue between sociology and the biological sciences. Of particular concern is the interaction between material and social environments with biological processes and evolved predispositions common to all humans.

The 2020 Summer Institute on Computational Social Science  (SICSS) held June 22-26, 2020  featured a Panel Discussion on Digital and Computational Demography. Panelists included  Nicolò Cavalli (SICSS-Duke 18, SICSS-Oxford 19), Ridhi Kashyap (SICSS-Princeton 17, SICSS-Oxford 19), and Francesco Rampazzo (SICSS-Duke 18).

Duke University researchers V. Joseph Hotz, Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Economics, Scott Abrahams, PhD candidate in Economics,  and Marwa AlFakhri, PhD candidate at the Sanford School of Public Policy,  join co-authors Emily E .Weimers, Syracuse University, Robert F. Schoeni, University of Michigan and Judith A. Seltzer, the University of California, Los Angeles, to provide  the first nationally representative estimates of vulnerability to severe complications from COVID-19 overall and across race-ethnicity and socioeconomic status.

Jenny Tung,  Associate Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology, Susan Alberts, Robert F. Durden Distinguished Professor of Biology and Angela O’Rand, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Director of the Duke Population Research Institute (DUPRI),  join a distinguished multidisciplinary and inter-institutional  team of co-authors featured in the latest edition of Science, in their review, “Social Determinants of Health and Survival in Humans and Other Animals.”

Benjamin Goldstein Associate Professor of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, Duke Clinical Research Institute, Children's Health & Discovery Initiative, and DUPRI Research Scholar delivered a comprehensive talk on Electronic Health Records available though the Duke University Health System to Duke University and Health System researchers, “Working with EHR Data from Duke University Health System: What is it and How Do I do it?"

Announcing  the launch of  the  “Animal Models for the Social Dimensions of Health and Aging Research Network.” This NIH-supported High Priority Research Network supports research, mentorship, and training activities to integrate animal models into studies of the social dimensions of health and aging, across the life course. The Network is under the  leadership of Jenny Tung, Associate Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology and Biology, DUPRI Scholar and  MacArthur Fellow,  and co-directors, Kathleen Mullan Harris, James E. Haar Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,  and Alessandro Bartolomucci , Associate Professor, Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of Minnesota. 

M. Giovanna Merli, Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, has been awarded a five year P2C Center Grant funded by the Population Dynamics Branch of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), securing ongoing support for the Duke Population Research Center (DPRC).  In the ten years since its first NICHD award in 2009, DPRC has grown into a vibrant, interdisciplinary research organization bringing together scientists from the social and behavioral sciences and the biological, health, and statistical sciences at Duke. The Center now has a network of population scientists whose interests encompass health and well-being over the life course and extend to primate species as well as humans, or who use social network analysis to model health, human development, and demographic outcomes.

Jenny Tung, Associate Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology and Biology, DUPRI Scholar and  MacArthur Fellow,  leads the newly  awarded  “Research Network on Animal Models to Understand the  Social Dimensions of Aging” R24 grant from the National Institutes on Aging (NIA). Together with co-directors, Kathleen Mullan Harris, James E. Haar Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,  and Alessandro Bartolomucci , Associate Professor, Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of Minnesota, this award  will launch a national network  designed  to  foster research  that integrates animal models into studies of social aging.