WILLIAM C. COCKERHAM is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Chair Emeritus at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA, and Research Scholar of Sociology at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, USA. His PhD is from the University of California at Berkeley, USA. He is past President of the Research Committee on Health Sociology of the International Sociological Association. Currently, he is Deputy Editor of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior and has served on the editorial boards of several journals, including the American Sociological Review and Society and Mental Health. Dr. Cockerham has published numerous peer-reviewed papers on medical sociology and is author or editor of nineteen books and two encyclopedias.