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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

eScience Institute: Data Science & AI Accelerator Fall Proposals (Due 08/14/25)

The deadline to submit to the Fall Data Science and AI Accelerator is now extended to August 14th. This program pairs eScience Institute data scientists with researchers from any field of study to work on focused, collaborative projects. Collaborations may center on analysis of an existing dataset to answer a specific research question, an implementation of software for processing or analyzing data, data visualization tools, or tools for data interpretation. We strongly recommend that anyone planning to submit a proposal for an Accelerator consult with one of our Data Scientists during their Office Hours for guidance and also check out the Accelerator FAQs on our website. Learn more here.

Rao Publishes Research Article on Geometry and Population Cohort Formations

CSDE External Affiliate Arni Rao recently published an article in Taylor and Francis’ Mathematical Population Studies journal titled, “Geometrical constructions and analysis in population cohorts.” In this article, fundamental results on the formation of population capture cohorts using analysis, probability, and geometric arguments are derived. Dr. Rao introduces original ideas by connecting the geometry of paths of cohort formations with methods of data analysis, probability, and mathematical analysis. One of the reviewers of the article commented, “this seminal paper presents a novel geometric perspective on cohort formation, where the latter is defined in its strict demographic sense. The examples are elegant, as are the derivations and proofs.” To read the full article, visit this link.

*New* United Nations Climate Change – 12 Open Positions (Due 08/18/25)

Ready to contribute to global climate action? UN Climate Change is looking for passionate experts to fill 12 open positions! Join their diverse team from over 90 countries to accelerate progress on the Paris Agreement and support governments and communities in creating a more sustainable, climate-resilient future.

Deadlines: ranging from August 3, 2025 – August 18, 2025

More details

Curran Quoted in KNKX NPR Article on Seattle Transplants and Migration Trends

CSDE Director Sara Curran was recently quoted in a KNKX NPR article titled, “It’s not just you: What data shows about Seattle’s transplants.” Over the past decade, the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro population has grown by almost 11% due to tech job growth, outdoor access, and other draws that have pulled in waves of movers to the Seattle area. According to Census Bureau data, transplants now take up a higher share of the Seattle metro area than Washington locals, with 40% of King County residents being born in Washington state and Snohomish and Pierce counties are at about 50/50. Seattle is also among the fastest growing metros for international migration. Dr. Curran is quoted discussing migration research relating to how Asia drives international migration to the Puget Sound area. To read the full article and view the data, visit this link.

Dwyer-Lindgren and Mokdad Publish Article on Health System Performance Metrics

CSDE Affiliates Laura Dwyer-Lindgren (Health Metrics Sciences) and Ali Mokdad (Health Metrics Sciences) just published an article titled, “Using Mortality and Years-of-Life-Lost Metrics to Evaluate Health System Performance and Inform Health Care Policy,” in the New England Journal of Medicine: Catalyst. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) collaborated with Kaiser Permanente (KP) to augment KP’s existing suite of quality measures with estimates of mortality rates and years-of-life-lost (YLL) rates for KP members. This work was designed to inform whether or not KP was meeting its strategic goal of improving the health outcomes of its members and to stimulate a national dialogue about how different system designs contribute to the health of populations for which systems are responsible. To read more, click here.

CSDE Welcomes 5 New External Affiliates in Summer 2025

CSDE is pleased to introduce three of our new External Research Affiliates as well as welcome back two of our former T32 trainees and fellows as External Research Affiliates! Kristine Joy Chua (Assistant Professor, University of Notre Dame) utilizes methods from anthropology, biology, and public health to explore the social and biological factors that create and sustain peri- and postnatal inequities. CSDE Alumna April Fernandes (Associate Professor, North Carolina State University) focuses on a range of outcomes, from physical and mental health, employment prospects and wage outcomes, as well as the impacts of monetary punishment from legal financial obligations and practices such as pay-to-stay, where states sue incarcerated people for the room and board costs of their incarceration. Dornell Pete (Assistant Professor, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center) is an epidemiologist who uses community-engaged approaches to study the factors influencing stomach cancer, including lifestyle, environmental, and pathogenic factors in Native American communities. CSDE Alumna Maria Rodriguez’s (Principal Research Scientist, University at Buffalo) research is at the intersection of applied demography, computational social science, and social policy, and her work explores systems of care across technology and human services. Muaza Alhaji Shamaki (Professor, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto) does research in human development demography and population health, health geography, and cultural anthropology. Learn more about each affiliate in the full story!

 

  • Kristine Joy Chua – Dr. Chua is the Director of the Reproductive Biology and Culture Laboratory at Notre Dame. Her research combines evolutionary and biocultural anthropology perspectives to understand how chronic stress “gets under the skin” during pregnancy. She utilizes methods from anthropology, biology, and public health to explore the social and biological factors that create and sustain peri- and postnatal inequities. She also studies the role that cultural practices play in shaping health norms. Chua works closely with pregnant women in the Philippines and the U.S. Chua is currently co-leading a project addressing how the maternal immune system responds to fetal cells circulating throughout pregnancy (Co-director: Amy Boddy, UCSB). This is part of a larger international, multidisciplinary project (“Microchimerism, Human Health and Evolution Project”) funded by the John Templeton Foundation. Because adverse pregnancy-related outcomes (e.g., preterm birth) have been linked with maternal immune dysregulation and an influx of fetal cells, an important component of this project is incorporating the social environment to provide a more holistic understanding surrounding the experience of pregnancy, stress, and biology. Chua also leads the Pinoy-Pinay Health (PH) Project in collaboration with Mariano Marcos State University, Northwestern University, Laoag City, and the Governor Roque B. Ablan Sr. Memorial Hospital. This project examines how ecological stressors, including socio-political conditions, influence maternal-fetal dynamics and their biological systems among pregnant Filipina mothers. This project explores the political landscape and the range of political beliefs, cultural norms, and stress responses, connecting them to pregnancy and birth outcomes. The overarching goal is to understand what causes preterm birth, how health disparities manifest in this population, and how to address specific health-related needs. Ongoing projects include exploring when preterm birth may be an adaptation and why gestation varies considerably across species. Chua also investigates how stress is conceptualized in different cultural contexts and its implications for public health initiatives in order to mitigate mental health disparities. Chua was recognized as a 2023 STAT Wunderkind for her contributions to health and medicine. Her work has been published in Scientific Reports, Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, and other scholarly journals.

 

  • April Fernandes – April Fernandes’ work focuses on a range of outcomes, from physical and mental health, employment prospects and wage outcomes, as well as the impacts of monetary punishment from legal financial obligations and practices such as pay-to-stay, where states sue incarcerated people for the room and board costs of their incarceration. This work has succeeded in expanding inquiries beyond felony incarceration and bringing compelling theoretical and empirical analysis to both seen and unseen forms of social control and punishment. In addition, Dr. Fernandes’ future research will include an expanded exploration of the intersection between criminal legal contact and disability, looking specifically at the prevalence of people with traumatic brain injuries in jails and prisons and focusing on the experience and outcomes of their time in confinement. Dr. Fernandes has a robust pipeline of publications of both co-authored and sole-authored pieces and public and private grant applications that will ensure continued productivity within the field as well as transmission of these findings through public and policy-related scholarship.

 

  • Dornell Pete – Dr. Dornell Pete is a member of the Navajo Nation and an epidemiologist who uses community-engaged approaches to study the factors influencing stomach cancer, including lifestyle, environmental, and pathogenic factors (such as H. pylori infections and gut microbiome) in Native American communities. Dr. Pete aims to identify strategies for cancer prevention and intervention while improving overall gastrointestinal health. Current projects include the Navajo ABID (Stomach) Study, which is designed to be tribally based and driven.

 

  • Maria Rodriguez – Maria Y. Rodriguez, MSW, PhD Rodriguez joined the University at Buffalo in 2020. Her research is at the intersection of applied demography, computational social science, and social policy. Dr. Rodriguez’ work explores systems of care across technology and human services. From offline child welfare systems to online social media platforms, her work examines the systems we build to care for marginalized groups, particularly how we make decisions about whom those groups are. Based on a central tenet of ethical social work practice, the aim of Dr. Rodriguez’ work is to support the reorientation of systems towards working best for outlier cases. In her work, Dr. Rodriguez explores if and how the values and ideals that define systems can come from the lived experience of the system involved.

 

  • Muaza Alhaji Shamaki – Muazu Alhaji Shamaki works at the Department of Geography, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto. He is currently on sabbatical with Demography and Social statistics Department, Federal University Birnin Kebbi-Nigeria and is the present HOD. Muazu does research in Human Development Demography and Population Health, Health Geography and Cultural Anthropology. Their current project is ‘Maternal Health’.

CO2 Foundation Funding Opportunity: Reducing the Threats of Extreme Weather Events (7/31/25)

The CO2 Foundation is excited to announce its third funding opportunity: Reducing the Threats of Extreme Weather Events.

In addition to the gradual climate changes of the last sixty years, we have seen recent surges in extreme weather that suggest an abrupt climate shift. For example, the annual tally of big windstorms in the US went from a baseline rate of 1.2 per year before 2008 up to 19 events in 2023, an order of magnitude more. This threat has a different time scale than gradual global warming. We must now prepare for big troubles in the next decade.

Droughts and fires, heavy flooding, mega heatwaves, stalled hurricanes, windstorms, and extreme cold are already causing unprecedented losses to human lives and well-being, infrastructure, agriculture, and ecosystems. We must think big and implement quickly to intervene.

The CO2 Foundation funds innovative smaller-scale projects that can accomplish a lot in a short timeframe, which might otherwise fall through the cracks. We seek proposals to support timely interventions for extreme weather and/or prepare communities for the impacts of a rapidly changing climate system.

Examples include small workshops to explore innovative, fast-track solutions; new ways of reaching new audiences; or early research into the most promising protective interventions. Because civilization must survive until climate change and extreme weather are no longer a threat, we need to be resilient and to cooperate with each other.

The program aims to distribute $25,000-$100,000 contributions to projects that:

  • Engage diverse expertise: Apply relevant scientific and/or community perspectives to extreme weather interventions.
  • Share process and outcomes: Communicate broadly on successes and challenges, lessons learned from what has been attempted.
  • Turn innovation into impact: Explore how ideas and practices can generate solutions, action, and change across different contexts.

And we expect to fund these types of activities:

  • Conferences & Workshops: Convening diverse stakeholders to address extreme weather topics.
  • Research: Focusing on promising strategies to address extreme weather.
  • Communications: Broadly distributed storytelling about extreme weather impacts, reporting on community-scale and society-wide responses and future risks, or new communication methods or audiences.
  • Pilot Project Implementation: Moving what has been imagined out into the world with a focus on co-benefits, project sustainability/durability, and replicating what works.

We will prioritize applications received before July 31, 2025 from 501(c)3 organizations or projects with nonprofit fiscal sponsorship. Please see our Grants page for more information about our grantmaking program.