The Daily e-mailed faculty a short questionnaire that strayed beyond their work at Stanford. Here is a glimpse into the personalities behind your professors.

Hometown: Morrisville, Pa.

Undergrad: Harvard University, psychology major

Grad School: University of Michigan, doctorate in social psychology

Hobbies: Playing jazz drums with my electric fusion trio, Charged Particles, and snorkeling in beautiful places all around the world

#1 on My Playlist: “Shrubbery” by Caleb Hutslar (on Charged Particles’ new CD “Sparks”)

Favorite Book: The forthcoming autobiography by drumming superstar Peter Erskine

Favorite Movie: Can’t pick just one

If you could only eat one food group for the rest of your life, would it be grains, meat, vegetables or fruit? Hmmm. Meat? Fruit? Meat? Fruit? Pasta!!

If I hadn’t gone into academia, I’d be: Working as a survey researcher in the private sector by day, drumming by night

Department: Political Science, Communication, Psychology

Classes Taught: Political Psychology, Social Science Research Methods, Questionnaire Design

Primary Research Interest/Project: I study how Americans form opinions on political issues, when and why people become so passionate about an issue that it becomes a major focus of their thinking, how people decide whether to vote or not in an election, how people decide which candidates to vote for and how to do surveys well to accurately measure what Americans think and want, so the public has a voice in telling governments how to do their work. A special focus for us in recent years has been understanding what Americans believe about global warming