Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi is an Academy Fellow, Vienna Institute of Demography, Austrian Academy of Sciences. He holds a Ph.D. in Demography from the Australian National University (ANU) and is a Professor of Demography, University of Tehran, a Guest Research Scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), and Honorary Professor, School of Demography, ANU.

His main research areas include fertility and family change, international and forced/refugee migration, Muslim demography, and population policies. His long-term research on Iran’s sharp fertility decline culminated in the 2009 prize-winning book (with McDonald and Hosseini-Chavoshi) on Fertility Transition in Iran: Revolution and Reproduction. His research on refugee migration including the co-edited (with Hugo and Kraly) volume on Demography of Refugee and Forced Migration has shown the need for more rigorous research on this important but under-researched topic. He is currently investigating Muslim migrant fertility and diversity in Europe.

Abbasi-Shavazi is a founding member and past President of the Asian Population Association, and a council member of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (2022-2025). He received several scientific prizes including the 2011 United Nations Population Award.

McAuliffe, M., Pablo, R.C., Abbasi-Shavazi, MJ. and Maunganidze, O., 2024. Migration and (human) security: unpacking myths and examining new realities and responses, World Migration Report 2024, Chapter 5: IOM, Geneva.

Kraly, E. P., Abbasi-Shavazi, M. J., Torres Colón, L. L., & Reed, H. E., 2023. Social Consequences of Forced and Refugee Migration, Annual Review of Sociology, 49: 129-153.

Abbasi-Shavazi M.J. 2021. COVID-19, economic recession, and the Refugee situation, International Migration, 59:289–292.

Abbasi-Shavazi, M.J., and Jones, G. 2018. Population Dynamics and Human Capital in Muslim Countries, Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vol. 16, pp. 1–25.

Hugo, Graeme, Abbasi-Shavazi, MJ, and Kraly, E.P. (Eds.). 2018. Demography of Refugee and Forced Migration. The Netherlands: Springer.

Abbasi-Shavazi, M.J. and Kraly, E. P. 2018. Asia’s under-researched forced and refugee migration, Asian Population Studies, 14(3): 229–231.

Hosseini-Chavoshi, M., Abbasi-Shavazi, M.J., and McDonald, P. 2017. Fertility, Marriage, and Family Planning in Iran: Implications for Future Policy, Population Horizon, 13(1): 1–10.

Lutz, W., Crespo Cuaresma, J., M.J. Abbasi-Shavazi. 2010. Demography, Education and Democracy: Global Trends and the Case of Iran, Population and Development Review, 36(2): 253–281.

Abbasi-Shavazi, MJ., P. McDonald, and Hosseini-Chavoshi, M. 2009. The Fertility Transition in Iran: Revolution and Reproduction, Springer, Dordrecht.