William Brass (demographer)

William "Bill" Brass, CBE, FBA (5 September 1921 – 11 November 1999) was a Scottish demographer. He developed indirect methods for estimating mortality and fertility in populations with inaccurate or incomplete data, often dubbed "Brass methods" after him.

Early life and education

Brass was born in Edinburgh, where he went to school at the Royal High School and earned a Master's degree in mathematics and natural philosophy from the University of Edinburgh in 1947; during the Second World War he served in the Royal Navy Scientific Service.[1][2][3]

Career

Brass's career as a demographer began in 1948 when he worked as a statistician, then as deputy director, for the East African Statistical Department in Nairobi, which collected and analysed data on Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar. During his time there, the department conducted the first comprehensive census in East Africa, and Brass designed and analysed the East African Medical Survey.[1][3]

From 1955 to 1964 he was a lecturer in statistics at the University of Aberdeen; he was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1963.[3] He spent a sabbatical year at Princeton University, where he worked with Ansley J. Coale and others at the Office of Population Research on methods for overcoming the unsatisfactory demographic data for Africa, leading to The Demography of Tropical Africa, published in 1968.[1][2][3]

From 1965 until retiring in 1988, he was Reader in Medical Demography and then Professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; the first demographer there, he established the Centre for Population Studies, established a master's course in medical demography and taught many of its courses, headed the Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology from 1977 to 1981 and was chairman of the division from 1981 to 1985.[1][3]

In retirement he spent time working at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study[4] and the Australian National University, and chaired the working group on Kenya for the Committee on Population and Demography of the US National Academy of Sciences.[1]

Research contributions

Beginning with his work in East Africa, Brass developed what he called indirect estimation, techniques for deriving statistics on fertility, mortality and population growth from imperfect and incomplete data, including devising and working from simple questions such as the number of living children and living parents a respondent has. These form the basis of modern estimates of world population growth and are informally called "Brass methods", "Brass techniques" or "Brass estimates" after him.[1][2][3][5]

He also worked on population modelling and on British demography, for example analysing the role of female employment[2] and predicting that the high birth rate amongst immigrants in the 1970s would not continue.[3]

Honours

Brass was a member of the Committee on Population and Demography of the US National Academy of Sciences; in 1984 he was elected a Foreign Associate, the highest honour for which a foreigner is eligible.[1][3] He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1979 and served on its Council in 1985–88.[1] He was elected in 1985 to a four-year term as president of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population.[3][5]

In 1978 the Population Association of America gave him the Mindel Sheps Award for contributions to mathematical and applied demography.[1][3]

In 1981 he was made a CBE.[1][3]

After Brass's death, a memorial volume of essays in medical demography titled Brass Tacks was published.[6]

Personal life and death

Brass married Betty Topp in 1948; they had two daughters.[1] He was incapacitated by a stroke in January 1997 until his death at Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, in November 1999.[1][3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 John Blacker (2001). "William Brass: 1921–1999" (PDF). Proceedings of the British Academy. The British Academy. 111: 413–26.
  2. 1 2 3 4 John Blacker and Basia Zaba (19 November 1999). "Obituary: Bill Brass". The Guardian.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 John Cleland (18 November 1999). "Obituary: Professor William Brass". The Independent.
  4. ↑ "Brass, W.". Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  5. 1 2 John Blacker and Basia Zaba. "Obituary: Professor William Brass, 1921 – 1999". International Union for the Scientific Study of Population. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
  6. ↑ Basia Zaba and John Blacker, eds. (2000). Brass Tacks: Essays in Medical Demography: A Tribute to the Memory of Professor William Brass. London / New Brunswick, New Jersey: Athlone. ISBN 9780485115635. "William Brass 1921–1999". Population Studies. 54: 129–31. 2000.
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