Professor Sabu S Padmadas MSc, PhD, FHEA
Associate Dean (International) and Professor of Demography and Global Health
Professor Sabu S. Padmadas is Associate Dean (International) of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Professor of Demography and Global Health, and Founding Co-Director of the Centre for Global Health, Population, Poverty and Policy (GHP3) at the University of Southampton.
Through multidisciplinary research, I am strongly committed to transferring scientific knowledge and building capacity in new generation researchers to solve complex global population and health challenges that contemporary societies face in the era of uncertainty
Padmadas obtained a PhD degree in Demography in 2000 from the Faculty of Spatial Sciences of the University of Groningen in The Netherlands, an MSc degree in Demography in 1995 and a BSc degree in Mathematics with Statistics and Physics in 1992 from the University of Kerala in India, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice in 2006 from the University of Southampton. Padmadas joined the University of Southampton as a Lecturer in Demography in 2002 after completing a two-year term as post-doctoral fellow of the Dutch Royal Academy of Sciences at the University of Groningen. He is currently a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy, and an honorary Senior Research Fellow at the China Population & Development Research Centre, a think-tank attached to the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China.
His research interests focus broadly on population dynamics and the application of demographic analysis and statistical modelling of global health and wellbeing outcomes in low-middle income and transition economies. He has international expertise in programme impact evaluation and quantitative demography using census and survey data including calendar data, life course and birth history analyses, and population projections. The specific areas of his research cover a broad spectrum of challenging population health topics including: family planning, reproductive and child health, inequalities in health and healthcare outcomes, nutrition, life course epidemiology, population health policies and social determinants of disease outcomes. The journey to his multidisciplinary research career began with the publication of his doctoral thesis entitled ‘Intergenerational Transmission of Health: Reproductive Health of Mother and Child Survival in Kerala, South India’ – and inspired by his mentors: Professor Frans Willekens, Professor Inge Hutter and Professor PS Nair.
A significant achievement of Padmadas’ academic career is the research spanning over a decade (since 2003) evaluating three cycles of the United Nations Reproductive Health and Family Planning programme in China, which generated high impact and policy response at the national level. This was a high profile collaborative programme with the then National Population and Family Planning Commission and the Ministry of Health of the People’s Republic of China, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Padmadas has an excellent track record of successful research grants funded by the UK and International Research Councils, British Academy, UK Department for International Development, UK Royal Society, International Development Research Centre (Canada), Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Norway Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), United Nations and the World Health Organisation. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles in international journals, and has served as referee for research councils and for over 30 leading international journals. Over the years, his research has attracted attention from governmental and international think-tank agencies, policy decision-makers and other international media including BBC World Services and New York Times.
Country experience: India, China, Brazil, South Africa, Oman, Mauritius, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, Bangladesh, The Netherlands, Portugal, and UK
His passion for teaching is highly valued by undergraduate and postgraduate students from a range of disciplines across the University of Southampton. In 2010, he was honoured with the Vice Chancellor Award for excellence in high quality teaching and curriculum development, and subsequently the Southampton Students Union Teaching Awards for innovative teaching and outstanding lecturer category, consistently for over four years. His major contribution to higher education has been the broadening horizon curriculum innovation global health programme and the design and implementation of a cross-Faculty multidisciplinary quantitative MSc programme in Global Health based within Social Sciences at the University of Southampton.
Awards and Honours (selected)
- Southampton University Students Union Award for the most engaging lecturer (2016)
- Southampton University Students Union Award for excellence in teaching, runner-up (2015)
- Southampton University Students Union Award for excellence in teaching and outstanding lecturer (2014)
- Southampton University Students Union Award for excellence in teaching (2013)
- Vice Chancellor’s Teaching Award for outstanding contribution to education and curriculum development (2010)
- Post-doctoral Fellowship, Dutch National Science Foundation-NWO, The Netherlands (2010)
- Doctoral research scholarship, University of Groningen, The Netherlands (1996)
- KCKE Raja Medal from the University of Kerala for outstanding performance in the MSc degree in Demography (1994)