I am a demographer. My métier is the composition, change, risk, and change in risk of populations in the United States. Disparity and mortality are the two key themes of my research, although geography and, especially, temporality feature strongly in most of my work in either theme. I often use the life course approach to link observed disparities to later-life outcomes (including mortality, the ultimate distal outcome) at the population level.
As a postdoc at UC Berkeley, I’m part of the team developing and promoting Josh Goldstein’s CenSoc data linkage project, the first massive linked data resource of its kind for researchers of U.S. mortality. Having launched publicly in the latter half of 2020, CenSoc is primed for exciting things from the mortality research community in 2021 and beyond.
I received my Ph.D. in applied demography from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Before that, I earned an MPS in community and economic development from Penn State and a bachelor of landscape architecture from the University of Guelph. My path from novitiate landscape architect to researcher in demography was a journey of career discovery and self-actualization. Suffice to say, I liked what I did before but I love what I do now. In population science, I’ve found my true calling.
I can be reached at satherwood@berkeley.edu. I also invite you to follow me on Twitter, where I plan to be a little more active in 2021, and to check back here now and again for the occasional blog post.
Serge Atherwood, Ph.D. 