With research interests in population policies and demography, Dr. John F. May recently accepted a position as a research professor at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia, in 2020. Alongside this appointment, he has also excelled as a senior fellow at the Population Institute of Washington, D.C., since 2018, having formerly held the role of adjunct professor at Georgetown University between 2008 and 2019. Renowned for his expertise in population statistics and trends, Dr. May previously held distinguished, executive-level roles with the South Pacific Commission in Nouméa, New Caledonia, as a United Nations advisor on demography and population statistics in the early 1980s, as well as a United Nations associate expert in demography for the Institut Haïtien de Statistique et d’Informatique in Portau-Prince, Haiti, in the late 1970s.
As his career progressed, Dr. May traveled extensively to Belgium, serving as a population training coordinator for the International Union for the Scientific Study of Populations and an international population consultant. Immigrating to the United States in 1987, he then situated himself in Washington, D.C., where he was a senior associate and senior scientist for the Futures Group International, a population lead specialist in the Africa region of the World Bank, and a co-coordinator of the World Bank Population and Reproductive Health Thematic Group. Additionally, he served as a visiting fellow for the Center for Global Development for one year in the early 2010s, among other prestigious roles.
Alongside his primary ventures, Dr. May has been a scientific advisory council member of POPDEVINTER in Paris since 2016, a scientific advisory council member of the Berlin Institute for Population and Development since 2016, and a board member of the Association of Alfred Sauvy since 2013. Likewise, he is a prominent speaker and lecturer in the field, giving presentations and lectures at various conferences and universities. Notably, he has also excelled as a keynote speaker on several occasions.
Lending his wealth of knowledge to creative works as well, Dr. May has been a member of the editorial committee of Population & Avenir in Paris since 2020 and a peer reviewer of numerous World Bank analytical and evaluation reports since 2002. He has authored or co-authored myriad web articles, blog posts, podcasts, book reviews, press articles, op-eds and interviews throughout his longitudinal career.
Looking forward, Dr. May intends to write a handbook on population policy. He just completed a book regarding the demographic of Africa, which will be published in the upcoming future and translated into English and French.
