| Description | Professor William Brass (1921–1999) was a demographer, statistician, and mathematician. He is best known for developing a body of analytical techniques to estimate fertility and mortality rates in countries lacking comprehensive systems of birth and death registration, and where data collected in censuses and surveys are liable to be severely biased by response errors. Brass was born in Edinburgh in 1921 and educated at the Royal High School and Edinburgh University. He served as a Scientific Officer in the Royal Navy Scientific Service during World War II, working on statistical problems of torpedo ballistics. Following this, he completed his Master's degree in mathematics and natural philosophy in 1947. In 1948, Brass went to Nairobi as a statistician in the East African Statistical Department, where he contributed to the design of the East African Medical Survey, which included the collection of vital statistics in six rural communities in Kenya and Tanzania. While in Nairobi, he married Betty Topp; they had two daughters, Barbara (born 1952) and Sheila (born 1953). Brass’s first major contribution to demographic methodology was his 1953 research on fertility estimates using data from broad age groups. In 1955, he left Nairobi and returned to Scotland to take up a post as Lecturer in Statistics at Aberdeen University. He presented a paper to the 1961 New York conference of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, before working for a year at the Office of Population Research at Princeton on African demography. In 1965, Brass moved to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), where he was appointed first Reader, then Professor of Medical Demography. He established the Centre for Population Studies and played a key role in developing techniques to detect and correct errors in the World Fertility Survey (1972–1984) and the Demographic and Health Survey which succeeded it. At LSHTM, he took a major share of the lecturing for the Master's degree in Medical Demography and served as Head of the Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology (1977–1981) and Chairman of Division (1981–1985). Brass travelled extensively, giving lectures and seminars at institutions such as the East-West Centre in Hawaii, the UN Latin American Demographic Centre in Santiago, Chile, and the Cairo Demographic Centre. He was a member of the Social Science Research Council, Chairman of its Statistics Committee (1975–1979), and of its Research Grants Board (1976–1980). He also served as President of the British Society of Population Studies (1975–1977) and of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (1985–1989). He was a member of the Committee on Population and Demography of the US National Academy of Sciences, and was elected a Foreign Associate in 1984. He also served as a specialist adviser to the UK House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology during its investigation into population. Brass was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1979 and served on its Council (1985–1988). In 1978, he received the Mindel Sheps Award from the Population Association of America for distinguished contributions to mathematical and applied demography, and he was appointed CBE in 1981. Brass retired from LSHTM in 1988 but remained active, notably chairing the working group on Kenya for the US National Academy of Sciences’ panel on the population dynamics of sub-Saharan Africa. He conducted a detailed analysis of the 1989 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey, the first national survey to show that fertility in the country had begun to decline.
The collection includes papers and articles by Brass covering his entire career. Topics include his work on maternity history data, child mortality levels, population censuses and surveys, the study of the biosocial determinants of fertility and mortality, population forecasting, and the evaluation of family planning programmes. It includes reprints of Brass’s papers and journal articles (1951–1987), book reviews, and published book chapters authored by Brass. Many of the articles were published in academic journals, but the collection also contains unpublished notes and the proceedings of conferences and seminars. It includes collaborative work with Ansley Coale, Frank Lorimer, Etienne van de Walle, and Sheila McRae. |
| AdminHistory | William Brass, population scientist. Work specialised in making reliable estimates of death rates, birth rates and trends in the size and structure of a population in developing countries where births and deaths are not recorded. Devised a series of censuses and surveys to approach this matter: much of what is known about the populations of the developing world stems from his body of research.
Deputy Director in the East African Statistical Department at Edinburgh University, 1948-1955; worked at Aberdeen University, 1955-1965: appointed senior lecturer in the Department of Statistics, 1963; Author (with Ansley Coale and others) of ‘The Demography of Tropical Africa’, 1968; worked at the LSHTM from 1965 to 1988: awarded a personal Chair in Medical Demography in 1972. Instrumental in creating a Master's course in Medical Demography in 1970. Created a Centre for Population Studies at the school in 1974 and became its first director. Received the Mindel C. Sheps Award from the Population Association of America in 1978. Elected a Fellow of the British Academy, 1979 and appointed CBE in 1981.Elected Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, 1984. Elected President of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, 1985. |