Originally a
pre-medical major, Burt earned his
B.A. in social and behavioral sciences from
Johns Hopkins University in 1971 with a focus on social psychology. He earned a
M.A. in Sociology from
The State University of New York at Albany in 1973 working with
Nan Lin. He moved to the
University of Chicago to work with
mathematical sociology professor
James Samuel Coleman and earned his Ph.D. in sociology in 1977. His dissertation committee also included the social network analyst
Edward Laumann. Prior to joining the University of Chicago in 1993, he was a professor of sociology at the
University of California, Berkeley and
Columbia University. He is also the former Shell Professor of
Human Resources at
INSEAD and has held various
organizational development positions at
Raytheon. He currently resides in the
Milan metropolitan area. ==Research==