Ron Westrum (born November 23, 1945) is an American sociologist.

Education

Born in Chicago in 1945, Westrum earned a B.A. (cum laude) in Social Relations in 1966 from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

and a Ph.D. in Sociology in 1972 from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

Works

He is the author of ''Complex Organizations: Growth, Struggle, and Change'', (with Kamil Samaha), Prentice-Hall, 1984; ''Sidewinder: Creative Missile Development at China Lake''. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1999. 33l pp.; and of ''Technologies: The Shaping of People and Things & Society''.Belmont, Ca.: Wadsworth Publishing,1991. 394 pp.

Recent work

As of 1987, he was professor of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Technology at

Eastern Michigan University Eastern Michigan University (EMU, Eastern Michigan or simply Eastern), is a public research university in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Founded in 1849 as Michigan State Normal School, the school was the fourth normal school established in the United Sta ...

. His recent papers include: “The Three Cultures Model,” presentation at Symposium on Patient Safety for Improving Florida’s ''Medical Education'', January 2004. “Increasing the Number of Guards at Nuclear Power Plants,” ''Risk Analysis'', Vol. 24, No. 4, 2004, pp. 959–961. “Models of Bureaucratic Failure,” in ''Innovation and Consolidation in Aviation'', (Eds., Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004) Interested in

unidentified flying object An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are Ide ...

reports, Westrum was a

MUFON The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) is a US-based non-profit organization composed of civilian volunteers who study reported UFO sightings. It is one of the oldest and largest organizations of its kind, claiming more than 4,000 members worldwide wi ...

consultant. Westrum is said to be a frequent critic of CSICOP and other skeptical organizations.

Honors

He was the Scientist Guest of Honor at

ConFusion In medicine, confusion is the quality or state of being bewildered or unclear. The term "acute mental confusion"

XXX (January 23–25, 2004).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Westrum, Ron 1945 births Living people Harvard College alumni University of Chicago alumni Eastern Michigan University faculty American sociologists People from Chicago