Richard K. Thomas, Ph.D., was trained as a medical sociologist and has been instrumental in the development of the field of health demography. He has taught courses in demography and applied demography and conducted numerous workshops on demographic data. He has authored more than 20 books on health/health care and demography and numerous articles for professional journals, newsletters, and magazines. He has conducted numerous workshops and made dozens of presentations on his research. He has received over two million dollars in NIH funding for demography-related research. He has served on the faculties of several universities and medical schools and is currently an affiliate faculty member at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and a research associate at the Social Science Research Center at Mississippi State University.