Dejong Wins International Achievement Award

4-3-97

University Park, Pa. --- Gordon DeJong, distinguished professor of sociology and director of the graduate program in demography, has won the 1997 W. LaMarr Kopp International Achievement Award.

The $1,000 award recognizes faculty and staff members who have contributed significantly to Penn State's international mission. Dr. DeJong will be honored Sunday, April 6, at the Faculty/Staff Awards Program in the Penn State Scanticon Conference Hotel.

A Penn State faculty member for 33 years, Dr. DeJong and his research in demography have been a magnet for both domestic and international students. In 1987, he founded the graduate program in demography with six participating departments: anthropology, agricultural economics, economics, human development/family studies, rural sociology, and sociology. The program now enrolls 55 students, 21 of whom are from developing countries. It is one of the largest graduate training programs in demography in the U.S. and is unique in its interdisciplinarity and in offering both M.S. and Ph.D.

Dr. DeJong and his colleagues have received five successive Hewlett Foundation training and research grants in international demography which have provided tuition, stipend, and dissertation research support for 56 international graduate students. The Foundation has also provided support for short term residencies by returning Third World demography program alumni, an effort Hewlett has used as an example for other universities.

Over his career, Dr. DeJong has conducted research in Peru, England, Holland, Israel, the Philippines, Thailand and Romania. These projects have resulted in a book and nearly two-dozen professional articles co-authored with Third World scholars. Most of the projects involved in-country field work and exchange visits by his collaborators to Penn State. In the past ten years his training program grants and research program have supported on-campus visits of approximately 40 international researchers.

Dr. DeJong has been a senior fellow at the U.S. State Department's East-West Center in Hawaii as well as a visiting faculty member at the Netherlands Graduate School in Demography. He served a term as editor of Demography, the official journal of the Population Association of America.

He was previously honored with the Penn State Provost's award for excellence in collaborative teaching and the distinction in the social sciences award. He also received distinguished alumni awards from Central College, Iowa and the University of Kentucky.

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Contact: Vicki Fong (814) 865-9481 (office) vyf1@psu.edu