Robert K. Merton

Born Meyer Robert Schkolnick on July 4, 1910, he became Robert K. Merton and spent most of his career at Columbia University, rising to University Professor. He served as the 47th president of the American Sociological Association and in 1994 received the National Medal of Science for founding the sociology of science. His work spanned three domains: the sociology of science, crime and deviance, and sociological theory itself. He introduced "unintended consequences," "reference group," and "role strain" into the field's lexicon, but two concepts broke containment: "role model," which emerged from his study of medical students and grew from his theory that people hold not one role but a status set with multiple expected behaviors, and "self-fulfilling prophecy," the process by which a false belief triggers behavior that makes the belief come true. He died February 23, 2003, having given sociology its most portable ideas.