Alumni Eric T. Klopack is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Georgia. His research program investigates the intersections of social stress, deviant behavior, and physical health over the life course. Broadly, his research focuses on the mechanisms by which social and behavioral phenomena become biologically embedded. More specifically, he is interested in the processes by which social events and relationships interact with biological and developmental systems to produce inequalities in wellness and illness. Eric has served as a research assistant on two large panel data sets: the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS) under the direction of Dr. Ronald Simons and the Later Adulthood Study (LAS) under the direction of Dr. Kandauda A. S. Wickrama. Eric's work with these research teams has been published in multiple outlets, including Justice Quarterly, Structural Equation Modeling, the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, and the Journals of Gerontology, Series B. As a research assistant with FACHS, he has also gained considerable training in practical and theoretical considerations of the collection, interpretation, and analysis of biological data, such as circulating cytokines, C-Reactive Protein, mRNA gene expression data, and methylation analysis. He received a graduate certificate in quantitative methods in 2017. Eric's training has made him an excellent fit to teach undergraduate research methods courses in the Department of Sociology. He has also taught courses in the department's criminology concentration and is enthusiastic about teaching classes in the medical sociology concentration. Eric is a recipient of the UGA Department of Sociology's Bo Williams Award for Outstanding Performance as a Graduate Student (2017) and Certificate of Excellence (2019), as well as the Outstanding Student Contribution Award from the American Society of Criminology Division of Life Course Criminology (2019). His research has been supported by the University of Georgia Summer Doctoral Research Fellowship (2019). Education Education: M. A. The University of Georgia 2016 B. A. The University of Alabama 2013 Graduate Certificate in Quantitative Methods Research Research Areas: Medical Sociology Inequality Family, Life Course, and Aging Crime, Law, and Deviance Selected Publications Selected Publications: Klopack, Eric T. and Kandauda A. S. Wickrama. 2019. "Modeling Latent Change Score Analysis and Extensions in Mplus: A Practical Guide for Researchers." Structural Equation Modeling. Advance online publication:1-14. doi: 10.1080/10705511.2018.1562929. Klopack, Eric T., Ronald L. Simons and Leslie Gordon Simons. 2018. "Puberty and Girls’ Delinquency: A Test of Competing Models Explaining the Relationship between Pubertal Development and Delinquent Behavior." Justice Quarterly Advance online publication:1-28. doi: 10.1080/07418825.2018.1472291.
