GSA Ralph Lawton wins prestigious award at annual population conference

Congratulations to Ralph Lawton on winning the Population Association of America’s 2025 Dorothy S. Thomas Award for his paper titled “Early life infectious disease exposure, the ‘hygiene hypothesis,’ and lifespan: Evidence from hookworm.” Ralph is currently a PhD student in health policy at Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and a graduate student affiliate at Harvard Pop Center, as well as a member of its Doctoral Traineeship in Demography and Population Sciences.

Ralph joins the ranks of two prior affiliates of the Harvard Pop Center to win this award, including postdoctoral fellows Ian Salas (2014) and Christina Cross (2020).