# Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences

The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) is an interdisciplinary research institution at Stanford University that incubates initiatives designed to address major questions about human behavior and society, and offers a residential postdoctoral fellowship program for scientists and scholars studying social, behavioral, and policy issues. Fellows are drawn from a variety of fields, including "the five core social and behavioral disciplines of anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, and sociology". In recent decades, the Center has also hosted legal scholars, humanists, public policy practitioners, philosophers, and technical experts among others. CASBS fellows over the years include 30 Nobel laureates, 52 MacArthur fellows, and one U.S. Supreme Court justice.
It is one of the (currently ten) members of Some Institutes for Advanced Study (SIAS). Its campus is 19,600 square feet (1,820 m$^2$) with ample space for hosting groups of researchers. It has 54 studies, meeting rooms, a conference hall, a kitchen, and dining room with a private chef.
Sarah Soule started as director of the center in September 2023.

## History

The center was founded in 1954 by the Ford Foundation. The American educator Ralph W. Tyler served as the center's first director from 1954 to 1966. Political scientist Margaret Levi was the director of the center from 2014 until 2022.
The CASBS buildings were designed by William Wurster, a local architect.
Earlier, fellow selection was a closed process; new fellows were nominated by former fellows. However, since 2007, the center opened up the fellow selection process to applications. In 2008, it became an integral part of Stanford University and functions as one of the university's independent research institutes.

## Fellows

Each class of fellows numbers about 40 people. In the first 40 years of its existence it supported about 2,000 scientists and scholars.

### Notable fellows

The institute has been home to notable scholars, including:
* Paul S. Appelbaum
* Alexander Astin
* Leora Auslander
* Ludwig von Bertalanffy
* Anthony Bebbington
* Jamshed Bharucha
* Derek Bok
* Kenneth Boulding
* Justine Cassell
* Ruth Chang
* Dorothy Cheney
* David Clark
* Leda Cosmides
* Kimberlé Crenshaw
* Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt
* Yehuda Elkana
* Robert H. Frank
* Harold Garfinkel
* Henry Louis Gates
* Ralph W. Gerard
* Ruth Bader Ginsburg
* Mark Granovetter
* Adriaan de Groot
* Lani Guinier
* Leopold H. Haimson
* Eszter Hargittai
* John Haugeland
* Kieran Healy
* Miles Hewstone
* Douglas Hofstadter
* Philip N. Howard
* Katherine Isbister
* Murray Jarvik
* Lee Jussim
* Daniel Kahneman
* Robert Kates
* Elihu Katz
* Thomas Kuhn
* Terra Lawson-Remer
* Catharine MacKinnon
* Michael Macy
* George Mandler
* Paul Milgrom
* Elijah Millgram
* Ernest Nagel
* Rodney Needham
* Don Norman
* Robert Nozick
* Margaret O'Mara
* Karl H. Pribram
* Anatol Rapoport
* John Rawls
* Julie Reuben
* Edward Said
* Richard Sennett
* Andrea diSessa
* Kevin Hora
* Bradd Shore
* Sidney Siegel
* Neil Smelser
* Vernon L. Smith
* Richard C. Snyder
* Thomas Sowell
* Herman D. Stein
* Li Chenyang
* Deborah Tannen
* Charles Tilly
* John Tooby
* Edward Tufte
* Billie Lee Turner II
* France Winddance Twine
* Vanessa C. Tyson
* Philip E. Vernon
* Gordon S. Wood
* Irvin Yalom
* Benjamin Mako Hill
* Marlis Buchmann