Nathan Keyfitz FRSC

FRSS The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good. ...

(June 29, 1913 – April 6, 2010) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

demographer Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as ed ...

, a pioneer of mathematical demography......

Professional career

Keyfitz studied at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Univer ...

, graduating with a B.S. in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

in 1934. He worked for the Dominion Bureau of Statistics in Canada from 1936 to 1959, meanwhile earning a Ph.D. in

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in 1952. In 1959, he took a professorship at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

; he moved from there to the University of Chicago and the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

before joining the faculty of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

as Andelot Professor of Sociology in 1972. From 1978 to 1980 he served as Director of th
Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
He retired from Harvard in 1981, only to take another faculty position at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pub ...

and then to direct the Population Program at the

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is an independent international research institute located in Laxenburg, near Vienna, in Austria. Through its research programs and initiatives, the institute conducts policy-o ...

in Austria from 1983 to 1993. He also consulted frequently in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

over a period of many years. He was president of the

Population Association of America The Population Association of America (PAA) is a non-profit scientific professional association dedicated to the study of issues related to population and demography. The PAA was established by Henry Pratt Fairchild and Frederick Osborn, with fu ...

from 1970 to 1971.

Awards and honors

Keyfitz was a fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

, the

Royal Statistical Society The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good. ...

, the

American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts on November 27, 1839, and is the second oldest continuousl ...

, and the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

, and a member of the

U.S. National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Natio ...

. He was given seven honorary doctorates, won the Mindel C. Sheps Award of the Population Association of America in 1976, and won the Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service in 1991.. In June 2013, a symposium on mathematical demography was held in honor of the centennial of his birth.The Keyfitz Centennial Symposium on Mathematical Demography (June 24-28, 2013)
retrieved 2013-01-027.

Books

*''Introduction to the Mathematics of Population'' (Addison-Wesley, 1968) *''World Population: An Analysis of Vital Data'' (with Wilhelm Flieger, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1968) *''Population: Facts and Methods of Demography'' (with Wilhelm Flieger, W.H. Freeman and Company, 1971) *''Applied Mathematical Demography'' (Springer-Verlag, 1977) *''Population Change and Social Policy'' (Abt Books, 1982) *''World Population Growth and Aging: Demographic Trends in the Late Twentieth Century'' (with Wilhelm Flieger, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1990)

Personal

Keyfitz's daughter, Barbara Keyfitz, is a notable mathematician.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Keyfitz, Nathan 1913 births 2010 deaths Canadian sociologists Canadian demographers McGill University Faculty of Science alumni University of Chicago alumni University of Toronto faculty University of Chicago faculty University of California, Berkeley faculty Harvard University faculty Ohio State University faculty Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Statistical Association Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Fellows of the Royal Statistical Society Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences People from Montreal McGill University alumni