Massimo Livi-Bacci is Professor of Demography at the University of Florence. From 1989 to 1993 he was President of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population. He has published extensively on the history of population and on demography, and has taught or held research fellowships at universities all over the world, including the College de France, the Colegio de Mexico, Princeton University, University of California at Berkeley, and Brown University. In Italy he is a member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and of the Committee of Enquiry on poverty.