Professor Dowd wins PAA Clifford C. Clogg Award

Congratulations to Professor Jennifer Dowd, Deputy Director LCDS and Professor of Demography and Population Health, who was awarded the Clifford C. Clogg Award for Mid-Career Achievement at the Population Association of America 2022 Annual Meeting. 

Presenting this year’s award, Susan L. Brown, Chair of the Clifford C. Clogg Award Committee, outlined Professor Dowd’s outstanding achievements to date:  

“We received several strong nominations but after careful review we were unanimous in our selection of this year’s recipient. […] Dr Dowd’s transformative, scholarly agenda bridges disciplinary boundaries to elucidate the intersections between social and biological factors in population health. 

As noted by those who nominated her, Dr Dowd’s substantive contributions are wide-ranging, spanning the roles of infection and immunity in the social determinants of health, the population health consequences of the obesity epidemic, and socio-economic trends in mortality.

A prolific scholar with nearly 100 publications, her work appears in leading journals and has been cited more than 7,000 times. She also has an extensive grant record and is currently the PI on a large 5-year consolidator award from the European Research Council to study the bio-social determinants of mortality.

Many of you may be familiar with Dr Dowd from her pioneering work as founding member and editor in chief of 'Dear Pandemic', an online communication hub led by women scientists who translate research on Covid to the public. This resource - which is available both in English and Spanish - reaches over 1 million readers each month, and has already received numerous accolades including selection by the World Health Organization as a case study for effective health communication during an information crisis. 'Dear Pandemic' was also selected for inclusion in the US Library of Congress pandemic digital archive. The entire 'Dear Pandemic' team does this important work with no remuneration, it is a service to the public. As the nominators stated in their letter, 'Dear Pandemic' represents public-facing population science at its best.  

An exceptional mid-career scholar whose innovative research is advancing population science, Dr Dowd’s work not only reaches a wide scholarly audience that spans multiple disciplines, but also a public eager to learn more about the science behind the pandemic.” 

The announcement was made during the 2022 PAA Presidential Address on 8th April. The event was livestreamed, and the full Clifford C. Clogg Award presentation, along with Professor Dowd's acceptance speech, can be watched on YouTube from 0:27:41.

Huge congratulations Professor Dowd on achieving this well-deserved award.