معرفی
M. Giovanna Merli is Professor of Public Policy, Sociology, and Global Health at Duke University, serving as Director of the Duke Population Research Center and Associate Director of the Duke University Population Research Institute (DUPRI). She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Demography, the flagship journal of the Population Association of America.
Her educational background includes a Ph.D. (1996) and M.A. (1993) in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania, plus an Academic Visitor position at Oxford University's Nuffield College (2022).
Merli pioneers demographic methods for studying hidden populations, focusing on fertility/mortality in China/Vietnam, HIV transmission determinants, and immigrant health across U.S., France, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Her current work examines Ghanaian immigrant health through origin-destination context linkages, employing network sampling and ego-centric data collection.
Recent publications (2022-2025) reveal consistent themes: pandemic impacts on Chinese immigrant networks, spatial distribution analysis using data linkage, French immigration diversity, and bibliometric mapping of demography. These works demonstrate methodological innovation in migration studies, social network analysis, and public health.
Her grant portfolio includes NIH-funded projects like 'Dynamics of Ghanaian immigrants' health in the US' (2024-2029) and 'Duke Population Research Center' (2010-2026), plus CDC and NSF awards for migrant community studies and respiratory disease surveillance.
As DUPRI Associate Director and Population Research Center Director, she leads interdisciplinary teams advancing population science through training programs, computational resources, and collaborative research initiatives.
