Research Interests: Social networks; formal organizations; social stratification; methods.

Peter V. Marsden, the Edith and Benjamin Geisinger Professor of Sociology, received his undergraduate degree (Sociology and History) from Dartmouth College and his MA and PhD at the University of Chicago. His career began in 1977 in the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  After joining the Harvard faculty in 1987, he served as Chair of the Sociology Department and Chair of the Policy and Admissions Committee for the PhD Program in Organizational Behavior. From 2011 through 2015 he was Dean of Social Science in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Marsden’s research interests center on social organization, especially formal organizations and social networks. His ongoing interests include social sci­ence methodology, survey research, the sociology of work and the sociology of medicine. From 1998 until 2015, Marsden was Co-Principal Investigator of the General Social Survey. He received the 2016 Paul F. Lazarsfeld award that recognizes a career of distinguished contributions to methodology from the Methodology Section of the American Sociological Association, and the 2015 Book Award from the American Association for Public Opinion Research (for Social Trends in American Life:  Findings from the General Social Survey since 1972).