Neil Smelser

Neil Smelser
Born	Neil Joseph Smelser (1930-07-22)July 22, 1930 Kahoka, Missouri, US
Died	October 2, 2017(2017-10-02) (aged 87) Berkeley, California, US
Academic background
Education	Harvard University (BA 1952; PhD 1958) Magdalen College, Oxford (BA 1954) San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute (1971)
Thesis	Social Change in the Industrial Revolution
Academic advisor	Talcott Parsons
Academic work
Discipline	Sociology
Sub-discipline	Economic sociology political sociology
Institutions	University of California, Berkeley (1958–1994) Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (1994–2001)
Notable students	Jeffrey C. Alexander Simon Frith Arlie Russell Hochschild Gary T. Marx Christine Williams

Neil Joseph Smelser (July 22, 1930 – October 2, 2017) was an American sociologist who served as professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. His research was on collective behavior, sociological theory, economic sociology, sociology of education, social change, and comparative methods.