Mary C. Waters is the M.E. Zukerman Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. She specializes in the study of immigration, inter-group relations, the formation of racial and ethnic identity among the children of immigrants, the challenges of measuring race and ethnicity, and the longitudinal impact of natural disasters. Waters received a BA in Philosophy from Johns Hopkins University in 1978, an MA in Demography (1981), and an MA (1983) and PhD in Sociology (1986) from the University of California at Berkeley. She has taught at Harvard University since 1986, and was chair of the Sociology Department from 2001-2005. Waters is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.