Brian Thiede, associate professor of rural sociology and demography, has been appointed as the interim director of the Computational and Spatial Analysis Core (CSA) of the Population Research Institute (PRI) at Penn State. His appointment begins July 1.
Thiede is a demographer and sociologist whose research focuses on the relationship between climate change and demographic and health outcomes globally, and on poverty and inequality in the U.S. Thiede offers a great deal of methodological and administrative experience and is committed to building up methodological, programming, and data services to advance population science at Penn State.
Thiede will take over the role and duties of Guangqing Chi, professor of rural sociology, demography, and public health sciences, who will be stepping down as the director at the end of June. Chi served in this role for nearly nine years and will continue his research at Penn State.
The Social Science Research Institute’s (SSRI) CSA Core will be re-envisioned during the next year to support SSRI’s continued efforts to promote and enhance Penn State’s social and behavioral research broadly.