Robert K. Merton dies

Robert King Merton, whose groundbreaking work on the psychosocial forces that shape science careers established the sociology of science as a scientific discipline, died Feb. 23 at the age of 92.Most of his career was spent at Columbia University. There, Merton and long-time collaborator Paul F. Lazarsfeld created the Bureau of Applied Social Research, where the first focus groups gave sociologists insight into how texts and other media evoked responses in people.At the time of his death, Merton's own writings had been cited in more than 17,500 published pieces, according to an estimate based on a search of journals in science, the social sciences, the arts and humanities. His influence extended beyond the social sciences into mainstream culture, where terms that grew out of Merton's work, like "role model," are in common use. A search for another Merton-coined phrase, "self-fulfilling prophecy," turns up hundreds of scholarly references. "He was one of the truly small number of extraordinarily influential social scientists of the 20th Century," said Jonathan R. Cole, provost and dean of faculties at Columbia University. "In some sense, with his death we put a period to the end of the 20th Century developments in sociology."Merton mentored Cole, who recalled an informal survey he did as a teaching assistant in Merton's class on analysis of social structure. Cole asked Merton's students to estimate the professor's height. Merton was 6 feet, one inch tall. The students all overestimated by two-and-a-half inches or more. "He was a presence and a force," his former student said.When Merton launched his career as a sociologist in the 1940's the field was still earning credibility. "He established the sociology of science, and indeed, sociology itself as a legitimate and major scientific discipline," said Gardner Lindzey, a psychologist and former director of the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, which Merton helped to found, along with Lazarsfeld. "One of the great extraordinary accomplishments of Bob Merton is that he made great scientists realize that there is a place for the social study of science," Cole said. "He proved that there were things about science, its organizations, systems of values and rewards and methods of producing discoveries that was open to new and novel analysis by those who were trained as social scientists."To Merton, turning out impressive students who could stand the test of time was as important as publishing the accessible pieces of analysis for which he was known — writings designed to illuminate the workings of society for people outside of academia. Many students loved him, but many also feared their energetic teacher, who devoted hundreds of hours to editing the manuscripts of others, but was a merciless critic.Born Meyer R. Schkolnick on July 4, 1910, Merton grew up in the slums of South Philadelphia and Americanized his name after winning a scholarship to Temple University.Merton is survived by his wife, sociologist Harriet Zuckerman, whose interviews with American Nobel laureates formed part of the basis for his inquiries into the reward system of science and the channels of communication that determine which ideas survive and which do not. Among the concepts he introduced was the phenomenon of "the 41st chair" to describe the situation of talented scientists whose accomplishments are equal to those of Nobel Prize recipients, but who will never receive that recognition.He is also survived by his son, Robert C. Merton, who was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science in 1997, and two daughters, Stephanie Tombrello and Vanessa Merton.Merton was a member of The Scientist's advisory board from the time of the publication's founding in 1986.

Robert K. Merton dies

Towering presence in sociology and pioneering sociologist of science dies, aged 92.

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