Richard O. Lempert is a Visiting Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Foundation and the University of Michigan’s Eric Stein Distinguished University Professor of Law and Sociology emeritus. From June 2008 until July 2011 he served as Chief Scientist and Basic Research Lead in the Human Factors/Behavioral Sciences Division of the Science and Technology Directorate in the Department of Homeland Security, and from June 2002 through May 2006 he took leave from the University of Michigan to serve as the Division Director for the Social and Economic Sciences at the National Science Foundation.

Professor Lempert is a graduate of Oberlin College and the University of Michigan Law School, and he holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Michigan. He has chaired the Sociology Department at the University of Michigan and was the founding director of the University of Michigan’s Life Sciences, Values, and Society Program.

Professor Lempert has received numerous honors for his scholarship. He served a two year term as President of the Law & Society Association , is a recipient of the Law & Society Association's Harry Kalven Jr. Prize for outstanding socio-legal scholarship, was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is serving his second term as the Secretary of Section K of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition he has enjoyed competitive fellowships at the Center for Research in the Behavioral Sciences and at the Russell Sage Foundation. His interest in applying social science research to legal issues is reflected in his empirical, theoretical and doctrinal work in a variety of areas including, juries, deterrence, the death penalty, affirmative action, dispute processing, evidence law, social science methods, and the use of statistical and social science evidence by courts.

Lempert's innovative book, A Modern Approach to Evidence, now in its fourth edition, pioneered the problem-oriented approach to teaching evidence. Lempert is also the author (with Joseph Sanders) of An Invitation to Law and Social Science, and co-editor (with Charles O’Brien and Jaques Normand) of the National Academy of Science Press publication Under the Influence? Drugs and the American Work Force.

While at Brookings he is working on issues related to government bureaucracy, affirmative action and human subjects protection.

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