John Bongaarts is a Distinguished Scholar of the Population Council where he has been employed since 1973. He holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Illinois and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Population Dynamics at the John’s Hopkins School of Public Health. Bongaarts’ research has focused on a range of population and public health issues, including population projections, determinants of fertility and mortality, the impact of family planning programs and population policy options in both the developed and developing world. He has published over 250 papers, chapters and books. Honors include the Robert J. Lapham Award and the Mindel Sheps Award from the Population Association of America, and the Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health.  He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and is a Laureate of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population.Dennis Hodgson is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Fairfield University where he taught from 1976 until 2014. He has been on the editorial committee of Population and Development Review from 2010 through 2021. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Cornell University where he was a student in its International Population Program from 1969 until 1976.  Hodgson’s research has focused on understanding the relationship of population trends to the development of population theory and policy.  He has published a number of articles analysing the post-WWII period when most demographers came to see the rapid growth of population in the developing world as a crisis in need of policy intervention.  He has also published articles on the role that population concerns have played at various times in US history, from the 18th century through the early 20th century.