The semi-annual GIS Institute took place in January with two weeks of training and project work.

PSTC Associate Professor of Population Studies Rachel Franklin comments on the troubles facing rural America.

Driverless cars may mean fewer crashes and more productive time on the road but not necessarily less traffic congestion, says research by PSTC Professor of Economics Matthew Turner.

Associate Professor of Population Studies (Research) Rachel Franklin is now editor of the journal Geographical Analysis. Franklin, who is the associate director of Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences (S4), the spatial core for the Population Studies and Training Center (PSTC) at Brown, began her three-year term as editor on July 1.

The 28th International Population Conference took place in Cape Town, South Africa, October 29-November 4 with strong representation from PSTC faculty and trainees. The conference, organized by the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, takes place once every four years and draws approximately “2,000 population scholars, policy makers, and government officials from around the world to discuss the latest population research and debate pressing global and regional population issues.”

For thirty years, the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) has been collecting survey data in Mexico and the United States on Mexico-U.S. migration. It is the longest on-going study of Mexico-U.S. migration and has transformed the way migration is studied. To celebrate the MMP’s thirtieth anniversary, a bi-lingual conference was convened in Mexico City at El Colegio de México (Colmex) October 26-27.

John Casterline has been elected the president-elect of the Population Association of America. Casterline, now a professor in population studies in the Department of Sociology at The Ohio State University, was the PSTC director from 1992-1994.

Jerome Marston, a PSTC predoctoral trainee in Political Science, has been awarded the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Award.

Brown university has launched a new Mindfulness Center with Associate Professor of Epidemiology Eric Loucks as the director.

Climbing the socioeconomic ladder can prove challenging for many low-income students, but a recent study co-authored by Associate Professor of Economics John Friedman shows that poor students and their rich counterparts who attend similarly ranked colleges end up with comparable earning outcomes after graduation. The study, covered by Business Insider, also notes that some colleges are more successful than others in boosting low-income students' chances of upward mobility.