CEWS Profile: William Julius Wilson

William Julius Wilson received his Ph.D. from Washington State University in 1966. He is the Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor in the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is the author of numerous publications, including The Declining Significance of Race, and The Truly Disadvantaged. His 1996 book, When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor, was chosen as one of the notable books of 1996 by the editors of the New York Times Book Review and received the Sidney Hillman Foundation Award. His latest book is The Bridge over the Racial Divide: Rising Inequality and Coalition Politics. Professor Wilson was a past president of the American Sociological Association and has received many honorary degrees. A MacArthur Prize fellow from 1987 to 1992, Wilson has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Education, and the American Philosophical Society. In June 1996 he was selected by Time magazine as one of America's 25 Most Influential People. Finally, he is a recipient of the 1998 National Medal of Science, the highest scientific honor in the United States.