The International Max Planck Research School for Demography (IMPRSD) invites applications for the upcoming IMPRSD winter program 2011/12 at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock, Germany. The program includes advanced courses on Measures and Models of Demography, Frailty Models, Spatial Demography, and Research Tools and Presentation Skills. Courses are scheduled from early November 2011 to early February 2012. Candidates may apply for one, several or all courses. The program is aimed at developing high-level methodological skills and an understanding of the logical underpinning of demography. A strong background in statistics and mathematics is needed to get the most benefit from the courses.
Courses
Course 310 provides an introduction to demographic methods and terminology, with a focus on the mathematics needed to develop a deeper understanding of demography. Based primarily on the book by Preston, Heuveline and Guillot, this course will emphasize the beauty of formal relationships.
Frailty models provide a suitable framework to incorporate unobserved heterogeneity and associations into standard survival analysis models. Course 306 will start with an overview of the key concepts in survival analysis. A main focus will be on univariate and shared frailty models, designed to account for unobserved heterogeneity and random effects. Finally, the course will reveal the main concepts of correlated frailty models, which extend the former two.
Course 256 will give an introduction to techniques and programs used in the field of Spatial Demography. It covers methods that are useful for social demographers as well as techniques that can be applied in biodemography. Course participants will be introduced to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial data files, and they will be getting an overview over tools of descriptive analysis and cartographic presentation as well as basic and advanced spatial modeling techniques.
Course 299 offers an introduction to the practical, ethical and organizational aspects of research. Instructors discuss the various “tools of the trade” that scholar use, and students will have an opportunity to present and discuss their research.
Application
Application deadline for the IMPRSD winter program 2011/2012 is 20 September 2011.
Please see http://www.imprs-demogr.mpg.de/application.htm for instructions how to apply.
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