Willie Pearson

Dr. Willie Pearson, Jr. (Professor) is a professor of sociology in the School of History and Sociology. He specializes in the sociology of science and technology and sociology of the family. Prior to joining the faculty at Georgia Tech as Chair in 2001, he held a distinguished appointment as Wake Forest Professor of Sociology at Wake Forest University and adjunct in Medical Education at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He has held postdoctoral fellowships at the Educational Tesing Service (ETS) and the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), Congress of the United States.  In 1993, he received Southern Illinois University's College of Liberal Arts' Alumni Achievement Award. In 2001, he was elected a National Associate (lifetime appointment) of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In 2005, he was elected as an American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) Fellow. He is the author or co-editor of ten books and monographs and numerous articles and chapters.  He has held research grants from the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, Sloan Foundation, and U. S. Department of Justice.  He has served as a lecturer in Sigma Xi's Distinguished Lectureship Program; Chair; the Congressionally established Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering (CEOSE), and Chair, Committee for Science, Engineering and Public Policy, AAAS. He has served on advisory committees and panels at the National Science Foundation, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Sloan Foundation, National Institutes of Health and the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. He has held editorial board appointments with Contemprary Sociology (American Sociological Association), Sociological Spectrum, Science, Technology, and Human Values, Science and Engineering Ethics and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. His most recent work on the international science and mathematics achievement gap has been supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.