Taissa S. Hauser

Taissa S. "Tess" Hauser (February 14, 1942 – January 10, 2014) was an American sociologist and demographer. She was a Senior Scientist Emeritus in the College of Letters and Science/Sociology^[6] and the administrative director of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) of the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she worked from 1970 to 2011.^[1]

A member of the Population Association of America,^[7] Hauser was known for both her research work and mentoring in demography and quantitative sociology.^[1] She introduced methods to improve survey research and longitudinal studies. Beginning at a time when data was stored on punch cards, she developed computer programs and practices for the archiving, analysis and secure sharing of confidential longitudinal data.^{[8]: 214–216 [5]} She worked closely with her husband, research scientist Robert M. Hauser, examining issues such as social stratification, social mobility, impacts of education, race and gender, persistence of inequality across generations, and aging.^[9] Their analysis and her subsequent work on the Committee of Experts at the University of Wisconsin addressed gender and racial inequities in the 1980s.^{[8]: 214–216}