July 04, 2013 | News

Mikko Myrskylä has been appointed full professor at London School of Economics and Political Science

MPIDR-researcher Mikko Myrskylä has been appointed full professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He will take up his new position in the Department of Social Policy in September 2013.

Mikko Myrskylä is currently heading the Max-Planck-Research Group Life Course Dynamics and Demographic Change. Before starting at the MPIDR, the 35 year old researcher from Finland worked at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Helsinki. He holds two PhDs - one in demography, the other one in statistics.

“Demographic changes – the dramatic increases in longevity and comparably impressive declines in birth rates - are the most important changes experienced by humankind in the last 200 years”, says Mikko Myrskylä. He is interested in understanding both the drivers and implications of these changes. His current research addresses the questions of why fertility has started to increase in many developed countries in recent years, and how early-life conditions, including experiences before birth, influence later-life health and mortality.

At the London School of Economics, he intends to continue the research he started at the MPIDR.

The LSE was founded in 1895. Today it is one of the most important research and teaching institutions in the world, covering the full breadth of the social sciences, from economics, politics and law to sociology, anthropology, accounting and finance.

The Department of Social Policy, where Mikko Myrskylä will become full professor, is the longest established department in the UK and has received the highest rating in all Research Assessment Exercises (RAE) carried out in the UK. RAE is an exercise undertaken approximately every 5 years on behalf of the 4 UK Higher Education Funding Councils to evaluate the quality of research undertaken by British higher education institutions.