Professor David Coleman and Dr Helen Epstein have won the Olivia Schieffelin Nordberg Award from The Population Council, for excellence in writing and editing in the population sciences.

The Population Council, based in New York, is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation seeking to confront critical health and development issues — from stopping the spread of HIV to improving reproductive health, and ensuring that young people lead full and productive lives. Through biomedical, social science and public health research in 50 countries, they work with partners to deliver solutions that lead to more effective policies, programmes and technologies that improve lives around the world.

The Olivia Schieffelin Nordberg award honours the legacy of Dr Nordberg whose work as an editor, writer and director of publications helped disseminate important information on international population issues over three decades. The award recognises individuals with exceptional writing and editing skills, and demonstrated achievements in writing on population, that combines exceptional scholarship with appeal to a broad readership, or a record of editing technical material on population to make it accessible to varied audiences.

" Dr Nordberg’s contributions to the field of demography and population sciences have greatly influenced how the world thinks about population dynamics. We are delighted to honour these two individuals who, like Dr Nordberg, have dedicated their careers to sharing important insights on population issues with the world. " Julia Bunting, President of the Population Council

David ColemanDavid Coleman is an Emeritus Professor of Demography at Oxford University and former Fellow of St John's. His research covered population and social policy issues with a focus on the demography of minority groups, housing policy and immigration. His colleagues have called him the 'public face' of British demography, having co-edited the 'European Journal of Population' and served on the editorial boards of the 'Journal of Biosocial Science' and the Population Council’s 'Population and Development Review'.

Dr Helen Epstein is the author of The Invisible Cure: Why We Are Losing the Fight Against AIDS in Africa, an account of Africa's AIDS epidemic from the inside. She is a molecular biologist by training, freelance writer and independent consultant in public health for numerous organisations including the World Bank, UNCIEF, UNAIDS and Human Rights Watch.