Kenneth A. Bollen

Kenneth A. Bollen holds the Henry Rudolph Immerwahr Distinguished Professorship in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is affiliated with the Thurstone Psychometric Laboratory, the Carolina Population Center, and teaches advanced quantitative methods courses. His research focuses on structural equation modeling (SEM), longitudinal data analysis, model-implied instrumental variables (MIIV), and trauma-related outcomes. He leads the AURORA study, examining brain biology and function following traumatic stress exposure, and develops statistical software tools like the R packages 'MIIVsem' and 'MIIVefa'.

His work bridges methodological innovation with applied trauma research, addressing topics like PTSD prediction, neurobiological resilience mechanisms, and environmental health risks. He has pioneered MIIV-2SLS estimation techniques and contributed to the development of latent variable models. His interdisciplinary collaborations span neuroscience, public health, and sociology.

Bollen's teaching includes advanced SEM courses, regression models, and latent variable analysis. He actively participates in the ICPSR program and has advised major longitudinal studies. His research emphasizes causal inference, measurement theory, and addressing methodological challenges in social and behavioral sciences.