Christopher Fowler, professor of geography, was recently named director of the Federal Statistical Research Data Center (FSRDC) at Penn State, a unit within the Social Science Research Institute and one of over 30 Federal Statistical Research Data Centers located across the country.
The FSRDC provides researchers with secure access to restricted economic, demographic, and health data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Center for Health Statistics, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. According to Fowler, the FSRDC is a is a vital resource for Penn State faculty and graduate student researchers in the fields of economics, business, demography, geography, statistics, sociology, and health services.
Previously, Fowler has had active projects in the FSRDC system at University of Washington, Rocky Mountain University, Penn State, and the University of Minnesota and has worked with a broad set of researchers on those projects across the social and health sciences.
“The spatial data that is at the core of my own work never complies with the narrow parameters for release that bind FSRDC projects. I have had to work with the disclosure review board, often through multiple rounds, on every single project I have worked on,” Fowler said. “This has given me a solid understanding of what researchers need to do to frame their work in ways that will be legible to the Census Bureau and ultimately increase the likelihood that their findings will be released. I hope that this hard-won experience can help our researchers gain FSRDC approval and ultimately get their hard work out of the secure environment where it can have an impact.”
Fowler says he is most looking forward to being a part of the interface between the FSRDC and its researchers during this current period of crisis for federal data sources. “I suspect the combined institutional might of the various FSRDC directors barely registers in terms of its ability to influence policy, but it seems a good starting point to try to do so some good for both the agency and the research community.”
Fowler will officially start his new position Jan. 1. He succeeds Mark Roberts, professor of economics, who is retiring from Penn State in December after leading the FSRDC since its inception in 2014.