David Swanson, distinguished professor emeritus of sociology at UC Riverside, was presented with the Mindel C. Sheps Award at the Population Association of America’s annual meeting last month in St. Louis.
The biennial award, sponsored by the association and the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, recognizes major contributions to mathematical demography or demographic methodology. The award's namesake, Mindel C. Sheps, was a pioneering theoretical demographer.
with the Mindel C. Sheps Award plaque
at the Population Association of America’s
annual meeting in May.
Swanson cited five of Sheps’ published papers in his dissertation, “The Timing of Fertility: Mathematical Models and Socio-Demographic Aspects of the Second Birth Interval.”
“The Mindel C. Sheps Award holds a special place in my heart,” Swanson said. “I cited Dr. Sheps’ work extensively in my Ph.D. dissertation. This award completes the circle.”
Swanson, who has been a member of the Population Association of America for more than 50 years, was presented with the award by Professor Yang Claire Yang of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
“Dr. Swanson has made numerous important innovations in statistical and formal demography, including a series of new approaches to improving the accuracy of population forecasting and projections, most notably the cohort change ratio method, as well as major measurement tools for forecasting, most notably the mean absolute percent error rescaled,” Yang said in remarks at the award ceremony.
Swanson earned a doctorate in sociology at University of Hawaii in 1985 and joined the UCR faculty in 2007.
Considered one of the world’s leading demographers, he is the recipient of two Fulbright awards and more than $2.7 million in grants and contracts. He has authored or co-authored 136 journal articles and nine books, and has edited or co-edited five books.