50th Anniversary Symposium

Photos: Suzanne Camarata

Reimagining Societies in the Face of Demographic Change

Tuesday, April 29, 2014, 9:00 am–1:30 pm

Joseph B. Martin Conference Center
Harvard Medical School
77 Avenue Louis Pasteur
Boston, MA  02115

Learn about the issues, experts and outlooks that were a part of the Harvard Pop Center’s 50th Anniversary Symposium in this article by the Harvard Gazette. Watch videos of each of the speakers listed below.

This symposium was open to all and shed light on the current demographic challenges facing societies and communities, and the exciting, interdisciplinary initiatives and activities taking place at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies in response to these challenges.

8:30–9:00 am:  Continental Breakfast

frenk9:00–9:15 am:  Welcome

Julio Frenk, MD, PhD, Dean of the Faculty, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; T & G Angelopoulos Professor of Public Health and International Development, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Kennedy School

lisa-berkman9:15–9:45 am:  “Status of Current Worldwide Demographic Challenges”

Lisa Berkman, PhD, Director, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies; Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy, Epidemiology, and Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

BOsotimehin9:45–10:30 am: “Cairo*@20: The Promise of the Youth Dividend”

Babatunde Osotimehin, MD, Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. Dr. Osotimehim holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.  Since his appointment as executive director of UNFPA, he has intensified efforts to promote the rights and ability of young people to build a better world in the context of sexual and reproductive health. Prior to his current position, Dr. Osotimehin was Nigeria’s Minister of Health, and was Director-General of Nigeria’s National Agency for the Control of AIDS, which coordinates HIV and AIDS work in a country of more than 160 million people.
* International Conference on Population and Development

10:30–11:00 am: “Myths and Realities of an Aging Society”

jack_rowe_2Jack Rowe, MD, Professor of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health; chair, MacArthur Foundation Research Network on An Aging Society. Dr. Rowe previously served as chairman and CEO of Aetna, Inc., and as president and chief executive officer of Mount Sinai NYU Health. He currently leads the MacArthur Foundation’s Research Network on An Aging Society. Dr. Rowe was elected a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation.

11:00–11:30 am: Break

sir-michael-marmot-211:30–12:15 pm: “Fair Society: Healthy Lives”

Sir Michael Marmot, MBBS, MPH, PhD, FRCP, FFPHM, FMedSci
Director, Institute of Health Equity, University College London. Dr. Marmot has led a research group on health inequalities for the past 30 years and is principal investigator of the Whitehall Studies of British civil servants, investigating explanations for the striking inverse social gradient in morbidity and mortality.  He leads the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and is engaged in several international research efforts on the social determinants of health.

12:15–1:15 pm:  Closing Panel – The Pop Center’s Solutions to Today’s Demographic Challenges

During the last hour of the symposium, Pop Center Associate Director David Canning moderated a panel of Center faculty members, faculty steering committee members and special guests from an array of schools and disciplines who described the current, interdisciplinary Pop Center research projects  including such topics as:

  • Aging populations
  • Health impacts of microfinance on the rural poor
  • Malnutrition in India
  • Impact of flexible work policies and management style on employee health

canning_headshot-for-panel  chandra-headshot-for-panel  subramania_headshot-for-panel  water-headshot-for-panel

David Canning, PhD, Associate Director, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies; Richard Saltonstall Professor of Population Sciences, and Professor of Economics and International Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Amitabh Chandra, PhD, Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School of Government

S V Subramanian, PhD, Professor of Population Health and Geography, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Mary C. Waters, PhD, M.E. Zukerman Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Harvard University

1:15 – 1:30 pm: Wrap up