Ashton M. Verdery

Ashton M. Verdery is a Professor of Sociology, Demography, and Social Data Analytics at Pennsylvania State University, with a faculty co-hire in the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS). He holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2015), an M.A. from the same institution (2010), and a B.A. (First Class Honours) from McGill University (2007). His research focuses on the interplay between social networks, demographic processes, and population dynamics, with particular emphasis on bereavement, migration, and network-based sampling methods.

His work explores how demographic changes shape family structures and kinship networks, while investigating the consequences of social connections on health outcomes. Notable projects include analyzing bereavement impacts on mental health, transnational migrant networks' effects on social integration, and improving respondent-driven sampling techniques for underserved populations. Verdery also contributes to policy-relevant studies on opioid misuse, kidney transplantation disparities, and global aging trends.

He has collaborated on initiatives such as the Friends and Family of Kidney Transplant Patients Study (FFKTPS) to address health equity issues and has published extensively in leading demographic and sociological journals. His methodological expertise spans computational sociology, quantitative demography, and network analysis.