John Franklin Crowell Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology, Co-Director of the Biodemography of Aging Research Unit within DUPRI, Research Professor in the Social Science Research Institute, Faculty Research Scholar of DuPRI's Population Research Center, and Faculty Research Scholar of DuPRI's Center for Population Health & Aging
I received my Ph.D. in sociology and mathematics from
the University of Texas at Austin in 1969. After a year of
postdoctoral study in mathematical statistics at
Columbia University in New York City, I taught there
and was a member of the staff of the Russell Sage
Foundation for three years. I then was successively a
member of the faculties of the University of Illinois at
Urbana Champaign and the University of Texas at Austin
before joining the Duke Sociology Department as
Chairman in 1986. I served as Chair of Sociology from January 1986 to August 1997. My main research interests are
contemporary social trends and quality-of-life measurement, social problems, demography, criminology, organizations, and mathematical and statistical models and methods for the study of social and demographic processes. I have done extensive research in each of
these areas and have been elected a Fellow of the
American Statistical Association (1978), the
Sociological Research Association (1981), the
American Association for the Advancement of Science
(1992), the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (1997), and the American Society of Criminology (2004). I teach Contemporary Social Problems (SOCIOL 111), Advanced Methods of Demographic Analysis, and the Demography of Aging Proseminar (SOCIOL 750S). My other interests include tennis, jogging (10
kilometers), and music.