Melinda Mills

Demographer and behavioural scientist

Melinda Mills (MBE, FBA) is Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science (LCDS) and Professor of Demography and Sociology at the University of Oxford and Nuffield College. She received her PhD in Demography from the University of Groningen, and her Bachelor and Masters degrees at the University of Alberta, Canada. She has supervised over 20 PhD students, over 50 Master students and over 20 postdoctoral researchers. Mills has published seven books and over 100 articles across multiple scientific disciplines including COVID-19 and behavioural and public health interventions, combining a social science and molecular genetic approach to the study of behavioural outcomes, reproduction (fertility), nonstandard and precarious employment. She is a member of the UK’s SAGE (Science Advisory Group on Emergencies) related to behavioural insights, and the Royal Society’s Science in Emergencies Tasking Group COVID-19 and was lead author of their joint report with the BA on face coverings for the general public.