William F. Ogburn

William Fielding Ogburn (June 29, 1886 – April 27, 1959) was an American sociologist who was born in Butler, Georgia and died in Tallahassee, Florida. He was also a statistician and an educator. Ogburn received his B.A. degree from Mercer University and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University. He was a professor of sociology at Columbia from 1919 until 1927, when he became chair of the Sociology Department at the University of Chicago.

He served as the president of American Sociological Society in 1929. He was the editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association from 1920 to 1926. In 1931, he was elected as the president of American Statistical Association, which also elected him as a Fellow in 1920. He was also known for his idea of "culture lag" in society's adjustment to technological and other changes. This concept is mentioned in the book Future Shock, by Alvin Toffler. He played a pivotal role in producing the groundbreaking Recent Social Trends during his research directorship of President Herbert Hoover's Committee on Social Trends from 1930 to 1933.

He was one of the most prolific sociologists of his time, with 175 articles under his name.