Obama Hires Thompson to Lead Census Bureau

President Obama has appointed social science research specialist John Thompson to lead the US Census Bureau, replacing Robert Groves who left last August to take up the post of Provost of Georgetown University.

Thompson (pictured) has served as President and CEO of the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago since 2008, and was EVP for Survey Operations when he joined the organization in 2002. Prior to this, he had a 27-year career at the US Census Bureau, where he was responsible for all aspects of the 2000 Decennial Census, including management, operations and methodology.

An elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA), Thompson is Chair of the Social Statistics Section of the ASA, and chaired the 2009 ASA Committee on Fellows. He has also been elected to serve a three-year term as a member of the Committee on National Statistics at the National Academies of Science.

In his new role, Thompson will oversee planning for Census 2020, which will involve testing online response models, expanding the use of administrative records to improve data collection, and updating the procedures for creating a master address file.

Thomas Mesenbourg, who has served as interim director since Groves' departure, said in a statement: 'John's long and distinguished career at the Census Bureau and his recent experience leading one of the private sector's most prestigious survey organizations makes him uniquely qualified to lead the Census Bureau.'

Web site: www.census.gov .