The seeds of Richard Alba’s interest in ethnicity were sown during his childhood in the Bronx of the 1940s and 1950s and nurtured intellectually at Columbia University, where he received his undergraduate and graduate education, completing his Ph.D. in 1974. He was distinguished professor of sociology at the University at Albany, SUNY, until coming to the Graduate Center in September 2008. He is also on the staff of the GC’s Center for Urban Research and was its acting director during the 2011–12 school year.