Robert M. Groves, director of the U.S. Census Bureau, will speak on "U.S. Census: Measuring America" Feb. 18 at 1:30 p.m. in G10 Biotech. A reception will follow the talk.

Nominated by President Barack Obama, Groves was confirmed by the Senate and began his tenure as census director in July 2009. He has served as a professor at the University of Michigan and director of its Survey Research Center, and as a research professor at the Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland. He is the author of several books on survey methodology.

Groves served as the Census Bureau's associate director for statistical design, methodology and standards from 1990 to 1992. During that time, he argued that potentially millions of minorities who typically voted Democratic were being undercounted and advocated for the use of statistical adjustments to account for this discrepancy. Two Republican senators attempted to block his nomination as census director because of this, but he was confirmed 76-15.

The annual talk is sponsored by Cornell's Survey Research Institute, which supports the social sciences at Cornell.