Kenneth J. Sher, Ph.D., is Curators' Distinguished Professor of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri. His primary areas of research focus on etiological processes in the development of alcohol dependence, factors that affect the course of drinking and alcohol use disorders throughout adulthood, longitudinal research methodology, psychiatric comorbidity, and nosology. At the University of Missouri he has directed the predoctoral and postdoctoral training program in alcohol studies, and his research has been continually funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism for more than 30 years. His current work is focused on attempting to define the "core" of addiction and developing methods to improve the diagnosis of alcohol use disorders.