Frans Willekens, formerly of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI), has received the 2020 Mindel C. Sheps Award from the Population Association of America (PAA).
Jointly sponsored by PAA and the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, this award is given biennially for outstanding contributions to mathematical demography or demographic methodology. Individuals may be nominated on the basis of important contributions to knowledge either in the form of a single piece of work or a continuing record of high accomplishment. Nominees should exemplify the highest standards of professional conduct. Past recipients include Andrei Rogers (2018), Wolfgang Lutz (2017) and James W. Vaupel (2008).
Willekens has served as a Senior Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and Director of NIDI. He also previously served as Professor of Population Studies at the University of Groningen. His research interests include demographic modeling and forecasting, in particular multistate modeling (of life histories and population dynamics), simulation and agent-based modelling, and international migration.
Watch the award presentation video here.