J. Tom Mueller (pronounced miller) is an Associate Professor of Population Health at University of Kansas Medical Center. He holds a PhD in Rural Sociology and Human Dimensions of Natural Resources and the Environment from Penn State. As a rural sociologist and demographer, his research program focuses on spatial inequality, health, well-being, and environmental injustice in the United States. Using a variety of quantitative methods, his research focuses on understanding why some places are persistently worse off than others, and what needs to be done to remedy these inequalities.

Dr. Mueller’s work has been published in journals including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; Demography; Sociological Theory; Rural Sociology; American Journal of Public Health; Population, Space, and Place; and Energy Research & Social Science, among others. His research has been funded by the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities, the National Science Foundation, the Network on Life Course and Health Dynamics and Disparities in the 21st Century, and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Outside of his academic life, Tom is an avid musician and climber. As such, you can often find him either making music in his mostly analog home studio or at the bouldering gym.