Hans Rosling, a Swedish physician became a pop-star statistician by converting dry numbers into dynamic graphics that challenged preconceptions about global health and gloomy prospects for population growth. He died on February 7th at 68 of pancreatic cancer.
The topic of Global Health and Social Determinants of Health has interested us greatly. It is covered in detail in Michael Marmot’s dense book, The Health Gap (that few will wade into). Rosling’s work makes this information palatable and easily understandable.
See: NY Times Obituary
Rosling, his wife and daughter founded Gapminder, an independent Swedish foundation with no political, religious or economic affiliations in 2007. Gapminder is a fact tank, not a think tank. It fights devastating misconceptions about global development.
See Hans Rosling: How To Be Ignorant About the World (TED 2014) 19 minutes.
Many more instructive videos are linked on Gapfinder.org.