Lucinda Platt is Professor of Social Policy and Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research focuses on poverty, ethnicity, immigration, gender and disability; and she is particularly interested in using longitudinal surveys to address key questions in these areas. Current research projects include studies on: ethnic inequalities, including a focus on ethnic identity and ascription, the long-term social and economic consequences of child disability, immigrant selection, migration and inequality, and ethnic differences in educational and occupational aspirations. She is a co-Investigator of Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study, and was formerly Director of the UK Millennium Cohort Study.