Matthijs Kalmijn received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1991 (UCLA) and has since then worked at Princeton University, Utrecht University, and Tilburg University. Kalmijn has specialized in family sociology and social demography. Secondary areas are social networks and relationships, social stratification and inequality, and ethnicity. Kalmijn has initiated and co-coordinated several large-scale social surveys in the Netherlands, including the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (NKPS), and, more recently, the Netherlands Longitudinal Lifecourse Study (NELLS). Kalmijn’s current work focuses on (a) the strength and nature of relationships between parents and (adult) children, (b) the consequences of family structure for social inequality and social relationships, and (c) the long-term effects of negative life events.