Myron Gutmann, a prominent historical demographer, has taken the helm of the Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS) at the ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ Boulder.
Gutmann, who became the institute’s director on Jan. 1, succeeds Jane Menken, a distinguished professor of sociology, who has led IBS since 2001. She followed Richard Jessor, a distinguished professor of behavioral science who helped found the institute in 1957, directed IBS from 1980 to 2001 and is the university’s longest-serving faculty member.
Gutmann recognizes the stature of previous leaders. “The institute has been well-led for many years, and I’m hoping to do as well as they have done.”
One of his key objectives is to spread the word, to “show the people of Colorado that we are making an important investment in things that have value for them.”
Gutmann came to the institute because it is “unusual if not unique” among American academic social-science research organizations. IBS stands out for effectively linking the “abstract and academic with the applied and policy-oriented.”
“That linkage of the practical with the theoretical and the applied with the academic makes this a really, really great organization,” Gutmann said.
CU-Boulder has enhanced the institute’s strengths by hiring high-quality faculty members at IBS and across the campus, he said.
Some of the institute’s researchers are poised to be world leaders in coming years: “I see my role as mentoring many of those people, giving them experience in leadership so that they can be national and international leaders through IBS.”
Also on Gutmann’s radar is encouraging IBS research agendas that have “global significance but local focus.” Such research projects have “a real, worldwide impact scientifically but are built on research locations in Colorado and opportunities to have an impact on the people of Colorado.”
Before joining CU-Boulder, where he is a professor in the Department of History, Gutmann served as assistant director of the National Science Foundation, where he was head of the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences.
Prior to that, he directed the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). In 2012, he was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Since earning his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1976, Gutmann has held faculty positions at the University of Michigan and the University of Texas at Austin.
Gutmann’s research is in historical demography and population-environment relationships, with a focus on Europe and the Americas during the past four centuries. His recent research focuses on the relationship between population and environment in the American Great Plains, and on the history of the U.S. Hispanic population.
IBS’s stated aim is to foster work that “transcends disciplinary boundaries, that illuminates the complexity of social behavior and social life and that has important implications for social policy.” Faculty members in the institute come from fields including anthropology, economics, environmental studies, geography, political science, psychology and sociology.
For more information about IBS, see .
