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July 10, 2026 | PHD
Sanny D. Afable from the Laboratory of Population Health at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), successfully defended his doctoral thesis, "The Spatial Dynamics of Health and Intergenerational Ties in Later Life," at the University of St. Andrews. more
July 09, 2026 | News
Pension system reforms often aim to extend working life. Such reforms have been implemented throughout Europe, albeit to varying degrees in different countries. more
July 06, 2026
How do family structures result from and shape social inequality? In early June, international researchers gathered at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock to tackle these very questions as part of the conference "Kinship Structures, Dynamics and Inequalities". more
June 24, 2026 | Climate Change
A recent study examined 3.4 million births in Spain between 2008 and 2021 to determine the impact of wildfires and associated air pollution on the health of newborns. The results revealed that mothers affected by wildfires were more likely to have premature births, and their children had lower birth weights, regardless of their socioeconomic status. more
June 19, 2026 | PHD
Angela Carollo from the Laboratory of Fertility and Well-Being at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), successfully defended her doctoral thesis, “Statistical Analysis of Time-to-Event Data with Multiple Time Scales“, at Leiden University. In her thesis she introduces a statistical model that addresses an important gap in the literature on statistical models for time-to-event data. more
June 18, 2026 | Award
Aliakbar Akbaritabar and Tom Theile received the EAPS Open Science and Outreach Award for Population Studies at the EPC 2026 in Bologna for their contributions to research on internal and international migration using large digital trace datasets. Central to their work is the Scholarly Migration Database, an open data infrastructure that reconstructs the national and international mobility of researchers based on global bibliometric data. more
June 17, 2026 | Award
On June 17, MPIDR researcher Henrik-Alexander Schubert was awarded the Otto Hahn Medal in Frankfurt for his doctoral thesis on “The fertility puzzle. Trends and patterns of male and female fertility”. The Medal was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Max Planck Society, during the meeting of the Human Sciences Section in Frankfurt. In his thesis, Henrik investigated low fertility and its determinants. It makes major contributions to our understanding of current trends in fertility, and it does so with the highest methodological rigor. more
June 16, 2026 | PHD
Carolina Coimbra Vieira from the Laboratory of Migration and Mobility at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), successfully defended her doctoral thesis, “Migration, culture, and inequalities in algorithmically-mediated societies“, at the Saarland University. Her findings contribute to our understanding of how digital trace data can be used to measure and analyze culture, migration, gender inequalities, and online behavior, particularly in contexts where traditional data sources are limited or delayed. more
June 12, 2026 | PHD
Rishabh Tyagi successfully defended his dissertation, "The Disparate Effects of Employment Uncertainty on Life Course Outcomes," at the University of Oslo. In his thesis, he demonstrates that experiencing employment uncertainty due to job loss, unemployment, or workplace closures leads to negative health and family outcomes in Germany, Norway, and India. more
June 06, 2026 | Award
Mikko Myrskylä, director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), received the 2026 Dirk J. Van de Kaa Award for Population Studies at the European Population Conference 2026 (EPC2026) closing ceremony in Bologna. Presented by the European Association for Population Studies (EAPS), the award honors outstanding scientific achievements in population studies. more