Penn State Intercom......January 24, 2002

Institute assists
social sciences research

What links research concerning school financing in elderly communities, surveys about African-American smoking habits, and studies examining the balance between work and family in rural areas? These projects, among many others, require research resources beyond the ordinary. The University's newly founded Social Science Research Institute provides the means for researchers to find the answers to complex social problems.

Headed by Mark Hayward, professor of sociology and demography, the institute fosters communication and collaboration across the University's social science community to build research projects and centers of excellence. Researchers can use state-of-the-art technological resources in computing, survey design and data collection, proposal development and grants management, data management and statistical programming, electronic data archiving and geographic information systems approaches to social science research.

Open to all social science faculty members at the University, the institute is supported collaboratively by the colleges of Agricultural Sciences, Education, Health and Human Development, and the Liberal Arts; the Office of the Vice President for Research; and the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost.

The institute comprises several University research centers: Population Research Institute, The Institute for Policy Research and Evaluation, and the new Survey Research Center. Led by David Johnson, professor of sociology and human development and family studies, the Survey Research Center offers research support to faculty in the areas of survey design, sampling and data collection. Undergraduate and graduate students will be collecting data on problems confronting Pennsylvania residents as well as the U.S. population. The center also serves as a resource on primary survey data collection for students enrolled in research methods courses. The institute offers a range of workshops in computing, GIS and survey research methods open to students and faculty each academic year.

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