Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin

05/22/2026

Congratulations to PRC Faculty Scholar Beth Widen on being named a 2026 Excellence in Nutrition Fellow by the American Society for Nutrition! 🎉

This honor recognizes leaders whose work has made lasting contributions to nutrition research, policy, education, and public health.

Dr. Widen’s research focuses on maternal and child nutrition and health, helping advance evidence-based approaches to improving health outcomes across the life course.

She will be recognized at NUTRITION 2026 this July in National Harbor, Maryland.

04/03/2026

We are proud to share that PRC PhD trainee Kylie Jaeyun Yim has been selected as a top 12 finalist in the Empower Your Research Pitch Competition!

Her research talk is titled “Envisioning Parenthood: The Social Shaping of Fertility Decisions in the U.S. and South Korea,” and she was selected from a competitive pool of 73 participants.

Finalists will compete for awards in research communication, creativity, public engagement, and audience choice.

We encourage our community to come out and support Kylie at the finale:

Wednesday, April 15
5:00–7:30 p.m.
Etter-Harbin Alumni Center, UT Austin

Please join us in congratulating Kylie and cheering her on in the final round!

03/17/2026

Debra Umberson, Director of the Center on Aging and Population Sciences (CAPS), was recently featured in The Washington Post for her research on how challenging relationships can influence our health and aging. Her work continues to shed light on the powerful connections between social ties and well‑being.

Read the full feature here:

This study was funded by the National Institute on Aging and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It focused on the health impacts of “hasslers” — people the researchers defined as those “who create problems or make life more difficult.”  Over the course of six...

01/07/2026

PRC Congratulations!

We’re proud to share that David Yeager ranked 9th and Sandra Black also earned a spot ( #78) on Education Week’s 2026 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, recognizing them among the nation’s top education scholars!

Join us in celebrating their impact on educational research and policy.

12/09/2025

Applications for the 2026 REU program at the PRC are now open!

The REU program hosts undergraduates from around the United States for 8 weeks during the summer and introduces them to careers in social science through research that contributes to our scientific understanding of race and ethnicity and the demography of the criminal justice system.

Applications are due February 15.

More information: https://etap.nsf.gov/award/7563/opportunity/11678

11/13/2025

Congratulations to PRC Faculty Scholar David Yeager, who has been named a 2025 Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate!

This distinction is awarded to researchers whose work ranks among the top 1% most cited in their field globally, recognizing lasting influence and exceptional scholarly impact.

Dr. Yeager’s research on adolescence, mindsets, and social behavior continues to advance our understanding of how young people learn, grow, and thrive.

We’re proud to celebrate this achievement!

10/29/2025

We’re proud to celebrate Michael Sierra-Arévalo, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Sociology, who was named a finalist for the 2025 Hamilton Book Awards for his powerful work, The Danger Imperative: Violence, Death, and the Soul of Policing.

The Hamilton Book Awards—co-sponsored by the University Co-op and UT’s Office of the Vice President for Research, Scholarship and Creative Endeavors—honor outstanding literary and scholarly achievements across the university.

Dr. Sierra-Arévalo’s book offers a compelling look at how police officers’ daily exposure to danger and death shapes law enforcement culture, behavior, and reform efforts. His work highlights the depth of research and societal impact emerging from the College of Liberal Arts.

Congratulations to Dr. Sierra-Arévalo and all of this year’s nominees for advancing scholarship that deepens our understanding of the world. 🌟

10/28/2025

We're excited to announce that Aigné Taylor has been selected for the Health Policy Research Scholars Program! This Robert Wood Johnson Foundation leadership development program supports full-time doctoral students in applying our research to advance health and equity.

Over the next four years, Taylor will learn from research and health policy experts and connect with a cohort of talented scholars from across the nation. She is looking forward to collaborating on ways to use her sociological research to shape policies that create a future where health is no longer a privilege, but a right.

https://www.rwjf.org/en/our-vision/focus-areas/leadership-for-better-health/health-policy-research-scholars.html

10/20/2025

Congratulations to PRC undergraduate researcher and REU student Katy Doncer!

Katy received the Undergraduate Paper Award from the Southern Demographic Association for her paper “Life or Death: The Wild West of Capital Punishment in Texas.”

Many of our REU students also presented their research at this year’s SDA meeting—an exciting showcase of undergraduate scholarship supported by the PRC.

We’re so proud of Katy and all our students for representing the PRC!

10/16/2025

PRC Faculty Scholar Dean Spears was featured in The Austin Chronicle! 📰

The article explores his research on global population trends and his mission to bring the depopulation conversation to a wider audience.

Read the full story:

Texas’ declining birth rate is not something you’re likely to notice while jogging around Lady Bird Lake or grocery shopping at H-E-B, says UT population researcher Dean Spears. The difference between a society where people have 1.8 kids on average, compared to 2.1, is hardly noticeable at first...