Professor David Voas
ISER is delighted to announce that Professor David Voas, one of the country’s leading quantitative sociologists, is joining its research team in November 2011.
A demographer by training, David comes to ISER from the University of Manchester. His research over the past decade has revolved around the intergenerational transmission of beliefs and values, specifically religion. He has also continued to work on core demographic issues, particularly fertility and marriage. Ethnicity has been another key area of interest. Much of this activity involves international comparisons.
David is the British national programme director for the European Values Study, one of the oldest international surveys and a major resource in this area. He serves on the editorial board of the British Journal of Sociology and has just completed a term on the council of the British Society for Population Studies.
He is a regular contributor to public discussions in his areas of expertise. He is co-director of British Religion in Numbers, which has become a leading source of information on this topic; the site has had more than 50,000 visitors during the past 12 months.
His degrees are from the London School of Economics and the University of Cambridge. He worked in the private sector and lived in different parts of the world before returning to academic life in 1998. At Manchester he was a senior member of the Institute for Social Change, and prior to that the Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research.
Commenting on his appointment to ISER, David said he was looking forward to making the most of the fantastic survey and research resources and opportunities the Institute provides:
“ISER is the best place in Britain to be a quantitative social scientist and Understanding Society is one of the newest and most valuable social surveys in the world. It’s an exciting time to be here and I’m delighted to have the chance to work with the great group of people at the Institute.”