Edward O. Laumann is Director of NORC's Ogburn-Stouffer Center for the Study of Social Organizations, which undertakes research and training in the sociology of population, political attitudes and decision-making, community, health, and social structure.
Laumann serves as Chairman of the NORC Board of Trustees and is also George Herbert Mead Distinguished Service Professor in Sociology at the University of Chicago. He is a leader in the application of the study of social networks to social life. He was the Co-Principal Investigator of the National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS) and the lead author of The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the U.S. (1994). He is currently Co-Principal Investigator of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP). His expertise includes sexuality, health, social networks, complex organizations, and political sociology -- especially studies of elites and policy formation.