Annemette Sørensen, newly named director of the Murray Research Center at Radcliffe. Photo by Tony Loreti.

Annemette Sørensen, associate professor of sociology at Boston University, has been named the director of the Henry A. Murray Research Center of Radcliffe College, Radcliffe President Linda S. Wilson announced. The Murray Research Center is the nation's leading social science data archive for the study of lives over time.

"The Murray Center is one of Radcliffe's crown jewels, and we're very pleased that Professor Sørensen will be leading this important center for research and scholarship," Wilson said. "Professor Sørensen's international experience will complement Radcliffe's increasingly global approach to education, research, and public policy."

Sørensen, who was recently a visiting professor at the University of Bergen in Norway and the University of Copenhagen, earned her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin. From 1989 to 1992, Sørensen was an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Harvard.

"I am delighted to have this opportunity to work with the staff at the Murray Center to maintain and strengthen the center as a data archive and a research center," Sørensen said. "The Murray Center has for many years been close to my heart because its mission lies so close to my own research interests."

In addition to her academic expertise, Sørensen possesses senior administrative experience, having served as director of the sociology program at the National Science Foundation and director of graduate studies in sociology at Boston University.

A seven-member search committee, composed of Radcliffe academic staff and Harvard senior faculty, conducted a nationwide search to fill the position vacated by Anne Colby last spring. The committee was chaired by Mary Maples Dunn, the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe. On Feb. 1, Sørensen will begin serving as director on a part-time basis. She will begin full-time on June 1.