Biography
Caldwell was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and educated at Sydney University and Sydney Teachers College (1946–48), University of New England (1955–1958), Australian National University (Ph.D, 1959–61). In February 1948, he married Pat Caldwell née Barrett (12 January 1922 – 24 May 2008). They raised four sons during their 60 years together, living in south east Asia, Africa, the Unitied States, South Asia and Australia at various times. Pat participated extensively in demographic research in Africa and Asia and co-authored two books and a considerable number of research papers.
Caldwell's first academic appointment was at the University of Ghana (1962–64), and he has been on the staff of the Department of Demography at the Australian National University since 1964 apart from two years leave working for the Population Council in New York City in 1968 and at the University of Ife, Nigeria in 1969. He has been a professor since 1970. In 1989 he helped start the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University in Canberra. He remained there till 1998 as Director of its Health Transition Centre. In 1991 the Health Transition Review was published from the Australian National University until 1997 with Caldwell as its editor.
In 1995, Caldwell retired as Professor at the Australian National University and Associate Director of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health. An international conference, The Continuing Demographic Transition John C Caldwell Seminar was held in his honour at the Australian National University. In 1996 he became Emeritus Professor of Demography at the Australian National University. In 1998 the John C Caldwell Chair in Population, Health and Development was established in his honour at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health.
Caldwell is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and has been president of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population and a member of the Population Council. He is the author of 25 books, 128 book chapters and 139 journal articles.
Read more about this topic: John Caldwell (demographer)
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