Kingsley Davis (1908?1997) was an internationally recognized American sociologist and demographer. He was identified by the American Philosophical Society as one of the most outstanding social scientists of the twentieth century, and was a Hoover Institution senior research fellow.
Davis received his Ph.D. from Harvard and taught at Smith College, Clark Univ, Penn State, Princeton, Columbia, UC Berkeley and USC.
Among his other accomplishments, Davis served as president of the Population Assn of America and the American Sociological Assn, represented the US on the UN Population Commission member of the Advisory Council of NASA and the Advisory Committee on Population for the U.S. Bureau of the Census
was the first sociologist in the US to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1966).
Davis won the Irene B. Taeuber Award for outstanding research in demography (1978), the Common Wealth Award for distinguished work in sociology (1979), & the Career of Distinguished Scholar- ship Award from the American Sociological Assn (1982). In 1953 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Assn.
Davis led and conducted major studies of societies in Europe, S America, Africa & Asia, coined the term "population explosion", & played a major role in the naming & development of the demographic transition model. He was also one of the original scholars in the development of the theory of overurbanization. He is also credited with coining the term "zero population growth" although George Stolnitz claimed to have that distinction.
As a demographer, Davis was internationally recognized for his expertise in world population growth and resources, the history and theory of international migration, world urbanization, demographic transition and population policy.
Kingsley Davis was a prolific scholar who published numerous research articles, book chapters and books.
In the popular press, Davis' work appeared in "Scientific American," "Science," the "NY Times Magazine," "Commentary," "Foreign Affairs" and numerous newspapers.
In 1957, Davis predicted that population of the world would reach six billion by the year 2000. He was remarkably close; that population figure was reached in Oct 1999.