He has been a professor at Harvard since he received his doctorate in sociology from the Johns Hopkins University in 1972. His research has focused on drug abuse research, quality of medical care, and services planning. One of his studies earned him the Socio-Psychological Prize awarded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1974. He developed a relapse prevention program for heroin and cocaine addiction, which is described in Recovery Training and Self Help: Relapse Prevention and Aftercare for Drug Addicts (Rockville, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1993). Dr. McAuliffe is Director of the National Technical Center for Substance Abuse Needs Assessment and the North Charles Research and Planning Group.