Elaine Howard Ecklund is the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences, Professor of Sociology, and founding director of The Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University, where she is also a scholar at the Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Ecklund’s research uses social scientific methods to explore the public relationship between science and religion. Specifically, she has just completed a study on how scientists in eight different nations understand religion and spirituality. To that end, Ecklund launched the Network for the Social Scientific Study of Science and Religion (N4SR) in 2011. In addition, through a cooperative project with the American Association for the Advancement of Science Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion program, she has studied how four different U.S. religious groups understand science.