Faculty Profiles

Dirgha J. Ghimire is a social demographer and Research Professor at the Population Studies Center, as well as a Faculty Associate at the Survey Research Center within the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. He also serves as Executive Director of the Institute for Social and Environmental Research Nepal (ISER-N) in Chitwan, Nepal.

Dr. Ghimire’s research explores the complex interactions among social, political, economic, familial, and environmental changes, with a particular emphasis on their effects on public health, child health and socioemotional development, education, population mobility, and aging. He utilizes a life course framework and employs mixed-methods, multi-level designs, and advanced technology for innovative data collection.

As co-director of the long-running Chitwan Valley Family Study—a community and whole-family panel study spanning over 30 years—Dr. Ghimire has made significant contributions to interdisciplinary research and capacity building in low- and middle-income countries. His work emphasizes rigorous integration of research, methodological innovation, and the training of a new generation of scientists, all while fostering knowledge dissemination and informed discourse on challenges ranging from local to global scales.