Judith D. Auerbach, PhD

JUDITH D. AUERBACH, PhD

Professor, Division of Prevention Science, University of California, San Francisco

A sociologist who works at the nexus of science and policy, with a focus on HIV, Dr. Auerbach’s research and practice interests address the social organization of scientific knowledge, specifically the role and standing of social research; community engagement in research; and attention to women in the HIV response.

“The main priority and the biggest challenge in my work today is the same thing: better integration of social science in the HIV research response to advance population health. I have been arguing for an HIV science agenda that attends equally to biomedical, behavioral, and social research, infused with community sensibilities, since the early 1990s, and it remains a struggle, chiefly due to resistance from the established biomedical community. Until we have a more integrated research response that meaningfully addresses the “why” (critical analysis of the social dynamics of the epidemic) as well as the “what” (description of epidemiological trends), we will continue to see significant HIV-related health inequalities in the U.S. and elsewhere.”