Nathan Caplan

Nathan S. Caplan, research scientist in the Survey Research Center of the Institute for Social Research and professor emeritus of psychology, retired from active faculty status on November 15, 1986.

Professor Caplan received his B.S. degree from the University of Richmond in 1951, his M.S. degree from the University of North Carolina in 1953, and his Ph.D. degree from Case Western Reserve University in 1961, with a brief interval of service (1955-57) in the United States Navy. In 1951 he was given an award by the American Psychological Association for the Best Undergraduate Research Project of the year.

Professor Caplan's work at the University of Michigan was most closely associated with the Institute for Social Research. He joined the University in 1961 as a study director in the Research Center for Group Dynamics. He was acting director at the Center for Research on the Utilization of Scientific Knowledge from 1978 to 1979, and upon its close, he became a member of the Survey Research Center.

Early in his career, Professor Caplan began a series of significant contributions to the understanding of juvenile delinquency and of economically disadvantaged youth. Throughout much of his career, he had major interests in addressing methodological problems of large-scale social research procedures in natural settings. He was successfully involved in applying such procedures to a variety of social phenomena ranging from ghetto riots to resettlement of Indochinese "Boat People." He is particularly renowned for his analyses of social science research utilization in government policy formulation. Professor Caplan taught graduate and undergraduate classes in Psychology.

Widespread recognition of Professor Caplan's contributions and expertise led to his serving in advisory capacities to a broad array of national agencies and organizations, among them the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Academy of Science, the Argonne National Laboratory, the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. He has also been called on to serve in formal advisory roles by the governments of Finland and the People's Republic of China.

The Regents now salute this distinguished scientist for his dedicated service by naming Nathan S. Caplan Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Research Scientist Emeritus.

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS

A Study of Ghetto Rioters. N. Caplan and J. Paige. Scientific American, (1968) pp.15-21.

On Being Useful. The Nature and Consequences of Psychological Research on Social Problems. N. Caplan and S.D. Nelson.  American Psychologist. (1973) pp. 99-211.

Social Experimentation for Evaluation and Planning. Riecken, H.R., et. al. Academic Press.(1976)

Two Communities Theory of Scientific Knowledge Use in National Policy Decisions. N. Caplan.  American Behavioral Scientist. (1979) pp.459-470.

Why Asian Children Excell In School. N. Caplan, M.H. Choy, and J.K. Whitmore. Scientific American, (1992) pp. 36-42.