Shawn F. Dorius

Shawn Dorius is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Demography at Iowa State University. Dr. Dorius’ research practice sits at the intersection of social demography, community studies, and computational social science methods. Linking these streams of research together is an interest in moving sound social science data into action within the context of individual and community health and wellbeing. He gives special attention to population health and the rural context, where both people and places are conceptual units of analysis. His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation and National Academy of Science, the Centers for Disease Control, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the AAA Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and numerous state agency awards.

Dorius occasionally lectures or leads research teams in data science summer training programs, such as Data Science for the Public Good and the NSF-funded Midwest Big Data Summer School. He also supervises undergraduate interns, graduate students, and new professionals working at the Public Science Collaborative. Prior to arriving at Iowa State University, He was a postdoctoral scholar at the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan and a research associate at the Survey Research Center in the Institute for Social Research, studying the role of culture on demographic processes under the direction of Dr Arland Thornton.