Peter Conrad is Harry Coplan Professor of Social Sciences and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Brandeis University. He received his Ph.D. from Boston University and has published six books, including the award-winning Deviance and Medicalization: From Badness to Sickness (with Joseph W. Schneider), and over sixty articles and chapters. He has recently completed a study on how genetics has been reported in the news media over the last thirty years. He has served as Chair of the Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association and as President of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. His current research includes continuing his interest in the medicalization of society and examining on the meanings of genetic and social enhancements.