Michael Shanahan

Professor of Sociology and Co-Director at the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth, University of Zurich, Switzerland

About the author:

I am interested in how characteristics of the person and social context—especially socioeconomic origins—interact to influence people’s lives, including their educational, occupational, and health trajectories. I examine young people’s social skills, motivations, personality, and genetic differences and how such aspects of the person combine with social circumstances to influence life-long patterns of achievement and health.

What I want to achieve:

My research strives to consider how social, psychological, and biological factors work in combination to influence people’s lives over many decades.