About seven years ago, Rob Kemp had two encounters that changed his life.
The first was when a mentor at the university where he earned his bachelor鈥檚 degree pushed him to talk with a former CU-Boulder PhD student. Until then, Kemp hadn鈥檛 really considered going on to graduate school.
鈥淚 had a really strong interest in renewable energy, and that dovetails nicely with population trends,鈥� Kemp says. As a result of talking about population issues at that meeting, he applied to CU-Boulder and was accepted into the doctoral program in sociology. During his first semester, he took a class titled Population Issues, Problems, and Policies, which launched the second big change.
鈥淚 was pretty much sold after taking that class,鈥� says Kemp, who has been employed full time by the State Demography Office since 2013. The professor who taught the class, Richard Rogers, became one of his main advisors.
Now he will graduate May 9 with a doctorate in sociology and a certificate in demography. He plans to pursue a career of studying population trends and wants to 鈥減ush the envelope of what applied demography can do.鈥�
鈥淔or me, things like demography, looking at the different structures of a population -- like age distribution, and how it can drive so much, and how that affects the economy and also can really drive the way that households consume energy -- is fascinating,鈥� he says.
鈥淭he only way populations change is when you鈥檙e born into it, when you move into or out of it, and when you die. It鈥檚 this really simple process, and then there are other simple processes -- people get older one year at a time. But the ways that they work together can be complex and impact many other things.鈥�
During his studies, Kemp got involved with the , part of the , where he worked with a number of influential people and found it to be a terrific training resource. The center explores demographic processes in the U.S. as well as internationally and its study areas include , , and .
Through his work at the center, Kemp got involved with the Computing and Research Services section of IBS on migration, and that grew into his job at the State Demography Office.
At the demography office, the job of Kemp and his colleagues includes giving talks on general population trends to a wide range of groups of around the state, including town councils, government officials and service organizations like Rotary. 鈥淎nyone can request a presentation,鈥� he says.
Residents of Colorado鈥檚 eastern plains outside of the Front Range are particularly interested in population changes, Kemp says. The population of this area has been getting older and losing jobs and people there are looking for information about trends, including estimates of difficult-to-count migratory agricultural workers.
The demography office is the state data center for the U.S. Census and presentations always include census information, Kemp says. In addition to providing data to state agencies, the office also provides population and demographic information to local governments and nonprofit organizations around the state to help them anticipate and plan for changes.
One of the key points his office is making these days is the impact that an aging population is going to have, Kemp says. It鈥檚 a change that will impact the economy and housing as seniors need more services and spend less on taxed goods.
Kemp grew up in Littleton, Colorado, and feels fortunate to work in his native state. He has been married for six years and he and his wife Katie have a son, Oliver, who will turn 2 in May. He says he did his dissertation 鈥渋n the mornings, evenings and on weekends.鈥�
And he says there is one other reason he was interested in attending CU-Boulder.
鈥淚鈥檝e always been a Buffs fan.鈥�
