Posted on March 22, 2004 at 3:59 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Professor William C. Cockerham, Ph.D., an internationally renowned expert in the field of medical sociology, has been selected to receive the 2004 Caroline P. and Charles W. Ireland Prize for Scholarly Distinction.

A reception and dinner will be held in his honor at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 8, at The Club’s State Room, 1 Robert Smith Dr., during which Cockerham will present a lecture, “Russian Mortality: A Detective Story.” For more details, or to make reservations, contact Susan Kelley at (205) 934-0771.

UAB presents the award annually to a faculty member in the Schools of Arts and Humanities, Natural Sciences and Mathematics or Social and Behavioral Sciences for professional and academic achievements and contributions made to the university and local community. The prize comes with a $5,000 cash award.

Cockerham is a professor in the UAB Department of Sociology who researches the international aspects of health, with broader interests in medical sociology, aging and the sociology of mental illness. He also is co-director of the UAB Center for Social Medicine and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, with secondary appointments in the School of Medicine and the School of Public Health.

Cockerham is the author of 11 books, with some translated into Chinese, German, Japanese and Spanish. His text, Medical Sociology, is in its ninth edition and is on the International Sociological Association’s List of Books of the 20th Century. He has conducted medical sociology research in more than 30 countries and has published more than 100 scientific articles. He also is the advisory editor for the Encyclopedia of Sociology’s health and medicine section, which will be published in 2006.

Cockerham earned his doctorate in sociology in 1971 from the University of California, Berkeley. He has been a member of the UAB faculty since 1991.