Biographical Information

Jonathan R. Cole is currently John Mitchell Mason Professor of the University and Provost and Dean of Faculties, Emeritus at Columbia University. For fourteen years, from 1989 to 2003, he was Provost and Dean of Faculties of Columbia University - the second longest tenure as Provost in the University's 250-year history. He served as the Director of the Center for the Social Sciences from 1979 to 1987, when he became Vice President for Arts and Sciences.

His scholarly work has focused principally on the development of the sociology of science as a research specialty. This work is seen in early-published papers and in his 1973 book with Stephen Cole, Social Stratification in Science. Among his other published work on science are: Peer Review in the National Science Foundation: Phase One of a Study (1978); Peer Review in the National Science Foundation: Phase Two of a Study (1981); Fair Science: Women in the Scientific Community (1987); The Outer Circle: Women in the Scientific Community (1991).

In recent years, his scholarly attention has turned to issues in higher education, particularly focusing on problems facing the great American research universities. His edited book (with Elinor Barber and Stephen R. Graubard), The Research University in a Time of Discontent (1994, Johns Hopkins University Press), contains essays by prominent educators, including his own opening chapter, "Balancing Acts: Dilemmas of Choice Facing Research Universities." More recently, he has been focusing attention on questions of scientific and technological literacy, on intellectual property and the new digital media, and on current problems facing research universities.

Jonathan R. Cole was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in 1975-76. He was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (1975-76). He spent the 1986-87 academic year as a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation. In 1992, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is an elected Member of the American Philosophical Society; Member, Council on Foreign Relations; and Elected Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

B.A., Columbia, 1964; Ph.D., Sociology, Columbia, 1969; Adolphe Quetelet Professor of Social Science, 1989 to 2001; Professor of Sociology, Columbia University from 1976 to present; Adjunct Professor, Rockefeller University, 1983-1985; Vice President of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University, 1987-1989; Provost and Dean of Faculties, Columbia University, 1989-2003. Director, Center for the Social Sciences, 1979-1987; Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California, 1975-76; John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, 1975-76; Elected Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1992; Cavaliere Ufficiale in the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy, 1996; Commendatore in the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy, 2003; "National Associate" U.S. National Academies of Sciences, 2003. Member, Council on Foreign Relations, 2003. Member, American Philosophical Society, 2005; Served on multiple national committees of the NSF, NRC, and NAS. Recent Board Memberships: Urban Justice Center, 2003; JED Foundation, 2003; Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, 1992-2003; President of Reid Hall Inc., Paris, 1989-2003; Marconi International Fellowship Foundation, 1997. Some publications in the sociology of science, science policy, and higher education, include: Social Stratification in Science (with Stephen Cole) (1973); Peer Review in the National Science Foundation: Phase One (1978) and Phase Two (1981) of a Study (co-authored); Fair Science: Women in the Scientific Community (1979); The Wages of Writing: Per Word, Per Piece, or Perhaps (1986) (co-authored); The Outer Circle: Women in the Scientific Community (1991) (co-edited and author); The Research University in a Time of Discontent (co-edited and author)(1994); multiple journal publications on similar topics. Currently working on a book on the critical importance of American research universities and why they are under threat. Teaching interests include social theory; science and science policy; problems in higher education; the uses and abuses of social theories, social facts, and empirical evidence in legal decision-making.

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