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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

Rao is Honored for his Contributions to Mathematical Modeling and Population Health

CSDE Affiliate Arni Rao (Laboratory for Theory and Mathematical Modeling, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University) recently delivered the C. Chandrasekharan Memorial Lecture for the year 2024 at the International Institute for Population Sciences in Mumbai, India, titled “Stochastic Modeling in Cardiology Research“. While in India, Rao was also honored as a 2023 Fellow of ISPS (Indian Society for Probability and Statistics) for his important contributions at the intersection of mathematical modeling and population health. Learn more about Rao’s work here!

Swanson Evaluates Models for Estimating Population Stability

CSDE Affiliate David Swanson (Sociology, UC Riverside) authored new research in Canadian Studies in Population, titled “Models for Estimating Intrinsic r and the Mean Age of a Population at Stability: Evaluations at the National and Sub-national Level“. Using Canada’s provinces and territories in conjunction with the “Cohort Change Ratio” approach to generating a stable population, Swanson tested the accuracy of regression models constructed from national-level data designed to estimate two factors of a population at stability from initial conditions at the sub-national levels: (1) its constant rate of change, denoted here by r’; and (2) mean population age. He found that these models provide reasonably accurate estimates. In the tests at the subnational level, the accuracy, as expected, is less, but the results indicate that the national level models provide estimates that are useful because they are tractable and provide information not available from the traditional analytical approaches. They also show that there are connections between initial conditions and stability that have been overlooked.

*New* Opportunity for Grad Students and Postdocs Interested in Climate Justice (Due 3/11/24)

Are you a grad student or postdoc who is interested in exploring interdisciplinary climate and social justice frameworks, and applying them to your work? Consider applying to the UW Climate Impacts Group and Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative’s first-ever Science Justice Summer School! This free two-week program will dive into a range of justice-related topics through lectures, discussion groups and more. Applications close Monday, March 11 at 11:59 p.m. The Science Justice Summer School will run from July 10-24, 2024, on the University of Washington campus in Seattle. We welcome students from all disciplines (sciences, social sciences, humanities). The Resilience Collaborative will provide 10-15 stipends of $2,000 to qualified applicants. APPLY TODAY!

Apply Now: Systems Science/Data Science Training to Advance Community Health Research (3/11/24)

The application for the Modelers and Storytellers: Transdisciplinary Training to Advance Community Health Intervention Research is now open! This is a no-cost, two-week virtual training to prepare predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees and early career researchers to apply systems and/or data science methods to community-engaged health disparities research. The priority deadline for applications is Monday, March 11 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

The Modelers and Storytellers Transdisciplinary Training is a virtual summer research education program funded by the National Institutes of Health. The live training will be held via Zoom from Monday, June 17 – Tuesday, July 2, 2024.

Participants will learn to collaborate effectively with each other and community stakeholders to accelerate the translation of research into practice. Students and researchers from public health as well as non-public health disciplines interested in addressing the social determinants of health and reducing health disparities are encouraged to apply.

Trainee Eligibility Criteria

  1. Education requirement (must meet ONE of the following):
    • Have a doctoral degree received within the last 7 years
    • Be a current doctoral student.
    • Be an incoming doctoral student starting Fall 2024
  2. Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.

Apply for the Modelers and Storytellers Transdisciplinary Training.

Apply for travel funding to attend 2024 IAPHS Conference (Due 3/11/24)

IAPHS greatly values and encourages student participation at the annual conference. The 2024 conference in St. Louis, Missouri will offer a variety of sessions of interest to students with lunchtime sessions specifically planned for students. They are pleased to offer travel scholarship funds for a limited number of students to attend the conference. Applications will be accepted beginning January 10, 2024 and will close on March 11, 2024. Learn more here.

Catalyst Award Competition from the National Academy of Sciences (Due 3/11/24)

The National Academy of Sciences has opened their Catalyst Award Competition, which seeks to reward bold, new, potentially transformative ideas to improve the physical, mental, or social well-being and health of people as they age, in a measurable and equitable way. They will issue up to 18 Catalyst Awards in 2024 to U.S.-based innovators. Each Catalyst Award includes a $50,000 cash prize in addition to other benefits. This opportunity was shared with us from UW’s team monitoring corporate and foundation opportunities. Please feel free to reach out to Gretchen Davis Richey, Director of Research (gsd@uw.edu) and Liz Exell, Senior Director for Corporate and Foundation Relations (lexell@uw.edu) with any questions on proposal submissions to this opportunity. Learn more in the full story and in the RFP.

Catalyst Award Competition 

Organization: National Academy of Medicine
Award amount: $50,000
Deadline: 3/11/2024
Description:
The Catalyst Awards—part of the broader Healthy Longevity Global Competition—reward bold, new, potentially transformative ideas to improve the physical, mental, or social well-being and health of people as they age, in a measurable and equitable way.
The National Academy of Medicine (“NAM”), with support from Johnson & Johnson Innovation, the Bia-Echo Foundation, and the Yun Family Foundation, will issue up to 18 Catalyst Awards in 2024 to U.S.-based innovators. Each Catalyst Award includes a $50,000 cash prize as well as exclusive access to additional funding opportunities, occasions to connect and collaborate with innovators from around the world, amplification of your award-winning idea, and resources to enhance your project and professional development.
The NAM is currently seeking bold, new, and innovative ideas that aim to extend the human healthspan (i.e., the number of years lived in good health), especially approaches that challenge existing paradigms or propose new methodologies or concepts. High-risk ideas that could potentially yield high rewards and, in turn, dramatically change the field of healthy longevity are encouraged.
Ideas may focus on any stage of life, as long as they ultimately promote health, functioning, meaning, purpose and/or dignity as people age.
Applications may also originate from any field or combination of fields (e.g., biology, chemistry, medicine, engineering, behavioral and social sciences, technology, data science, and policy). Examples of topic areas include but are not limited to:
  • Behavioral health (e.g., social connectedness, engagement, and well-being)
  • Biology of aging and molecular pathways
  • Built environment and urban planning
  • Disease prevention, including biomarkers and indicators of disease
  • Health care delivery (e.g., technologies simplifying access to care, elder care services)
  • Housing (e.g., smart-enabled homes, intergenerational housing models)
  • Physical health (e.g., mobility and functionality)
  • Policy (e.g., economic, health, and science)
  • Reproductive longevity and equality
  • Technology (e.g., telehealth; artificial intelligence; robotics; medical, assistive, and information technology)
Eligibility:
Early-career, Faculty & Pls
The NAM strongly encourages individuals with diverse backgrounds, ideologies, and perspectives to apply. Ideas or projects that aim to reduce health disparities, promote health equity, combat ageism, or apply human-centered design principles to engage older adults in the work, are also of strong interest to the NAM.
The NAM does not seek to fund existing programs (or slight variations thereof), approaches that are primarily public awareness, educational, or advocacy campaigns, nor products that are already commercially available.
The NAM Catalyst Awards are open to any person or team of any discipline or background. Individuals do not need to be affiliated with an organization to submit an application.
The NAM accepts applications from any type of U.S.-based organization (e.g., colleges and universities, government laboratories, research institutions, non-profit organizations, and for-profit companies). For-profit companies, in particular, cannot have annual sales revenues of more than $10 million for each of their last two fiscal years, and there is a strong preference for early-stage endeavors (e.g., seed investments, startups, social enterprises, and spinouts).
The PI must reside in the U.S. as a U.S. citizen, legal resident alien, or non-resident alien with a valid visa. Co-Investigators are not required to reside in the U.S..
There must be one principal investigator (PI) named on each application (applicants may also name up to three co-Investigators). A particular individual may only be listed as PI on one Catalyst Award application per annual cycle of the NAM Catalyst Award competition. However, a PI can be named on another application as a co-Investigator within the same cycle.
There is no limit on the number of applications a particular organization may submit.