9 February 2012

We were saddened to hear that Professor Tony Coxon, the founding director of the British Household Panel Study, passed away on 7 February.

Professor Coxon was the first director of the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-social Change (MISOC), which was created in 1989 as the home of the British Household Panel Survey - the first household panel survey in Britain.

He also worked as a consultant for several ESRC-funded research projects and was part of the review team producing a comprehensive demographic review of the UK social sciences.

Professor Coxon was well known for his work in quantitative methods teaching. Particular areas of research included occupations and perceptions of occupations; sexualities and sociology of sexual behaviour and homosexuality; and research methods relating to cognitive sociology.

He was Honorary Professor at Cardiff University, and also Emeritus Professor of Sociological Research Methods, University of Wales (since 1988) and Professorial Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh (since 2002).