Searle Whitney

Searle Whitney, President of the Institute for Population Studies (IPS), manages the organization's main informational website, HowMany.org. With the Earth's population recently exceeding 7 billion people, Searle Whitney works more diligently than ever to spread awareness about the dangers of this alarming growth scenario. Studies show that every 12 years, the world population will grow by an additional 1 billion people, burdening future generations with more critical population-related problems such as food, water, and resource shortages. Through IPS, Searle Whitney and his colleagues hope to educate individuals on the consequences of overpopulation and empower them to make decisions about family size that will positively affect the quality of life for future generations.

Searle Whitney and IPS pursue this goal in several ways, all of which are designed to foster an environment in which individuals can rationally discuss population growth without getting sidetracked by hot-button issues. Over the past year, Whitney has implemented numerous outreach strategies that include launching Twitter and Facebook pages for HowMany.org and making regular contributions to popular San Francisco Bay Area blogs. Whitney has organized numerous public events, panels, and film screenings to call attention to the world population problem and has served as a panelist himself during HowMany.org's Panel on Population and Climate Change.

Furthermore, Searle Whitney and IPS have worked with other San Francisco organizations to host the premiere of GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth, which was followed by a panel discussion that included Paul Ehrlich, one of the Bay Area's leading environmental scholars. IPS also maintains the PopulationGrowth.org blog and is increasingly active in issues such as social inequality, women's rights, family planning, environmental stewardship, and sustainability.

Whitney earned his Bachelor of Arts from Yale University in 1970, where he studied psychology, linguistics, and computer science. He continued his academic career at Harvard University, where he graduated in 1976 with a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology.