David Meyer received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1970. He was in the Department of Geology & Geography at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst from 1970 to 1981. Then, he joined the Department of Sociology & Urban Studies Program at Brown University from 1981 to 2009. He retired as Emeritus Professor of Sociology & Urban Studies in 2009, and from then to the present, he is Senior Lecturer in Management at the Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis.