Robert A. Hummer

Professor of Sociology
Chairperson, Department of Sociology

Robert A. Hummer is Chairperson and Professor of Sociology and Faculty Research Associate of the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin.  His research work focuses on health and mortality patterns in the United States, with particular attention given to health and mortality differentials by race/ethnicity, nativity, socioeconomic status, and religion.  His current main project, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), is analyzing changing educational disparities in U.S. adult mortality in the early 21st Century.  He has published approximately 75 journal articles and chapters on these topics along with a co-authored book entitled "Living and Dying in the USA: Behavioral, Health, and Social Differences in Adult Mortality" (2000, Academic Press), which won the Otis Dudley Duncan Award for Distinguished Contribution in the Sociology of Population in 2002.  He is also currently principal investigator of three training grants in his areas of focus, 2 from the National Science Foundation and 1 from NICHD, which together provide support for around 30 graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Texas at Austin.  His teaching work focuses on health, mortality, and general approaches to demography at the graduate level and race/ethnicity and the introduction to demography at the undergraduate level.  He has previously served as President of the Southern Demographic Association and is currently on the Board of Directors of the Population Association of America and several other national boards and committees.