Steve Murdock received his Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from North Dakota State University and his Masters and Doctorate from the University of Kentucky in the same subject, finishing in 1975. From there he went on to teach at North Dakota State before joining the staff of Texas A&M in 1977. As the state demographer of Texas, Murdock headed the Texas State Data Center and Texas Population Estimates and Projections Program for more than 25 years taking a leadership role in the state’s coordination activities in the 1980, 1990, and 2000 decennial censuses. More recently he joined the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2004 and in 2007 he took a position at Rice University, specializing in applied demography, migration, rural sociology, and socioeconomic impact assessment. He has also authored or co-authored 12 books including: Applied Demography: An Introduction to Basic Concepts, Methods and Data. (1992), The Texas Challenge: Population Change and the future of Texas. (1997), The New Texas Challenge, (2003), Demographies: A guide to Methods and Data Source for Media, Business and Government. (2006) and “Applied Demography in the 21^st Century.” (2008). President George W. Bush nominated Murdock for the position of Bureau director on June 18, 2007, and the Senate confirmed him unanimously in December 2007. He officially became director of the Census Bureau on January 4, 2008, and served until the end of Bush's presidency, after which he returned to Rice University..