A pioneer in the field of political conflict and instability, Dr. Ted Robert Gurr passed away in 2017. Professor Emeritus and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, he frequently collaborated with fellow START researchers and worked on the START project “Turning to Terrorism: Ethnic, Religious and Extremist Organizations” as well as the “Minorities at Risk” project, which he founded.

Ted Robert Gurr had a B.A. in social psychology from Reed College (1957) and a Ph.D. in government and international relations from New York University (1965). Gurr taught at Princeton University (1967-69), Northwestern University (1970-84; department chair,1977-80), and the University of Colorado (1985-89) before joining the University of Maryland faculty in 1989. He was designated Distinguished University Professor in 1995. He wrote ten single-authored and coauthored books and edited or coedited ten others, including Why Men Rebel (Princeton University Press), and The Politics of Crime and Conflict: A Comparative History of Four Cities (Sage Publications, 1977). His other books on this topic are Preventive Measures: Building Risk Assessment and Crisis Early Warning Systems, (Rowman & Littlefield, 1998, co-edited with John L. Davies) and Peoples versus States: Minorities at Risk in the New Century (U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 2000). In 1993-94 Professor Gurr was president of the International Studies Association, representing 3000 members from more than 60 countries. Between 1994 and 2017 he was a senior consultant on the White House-initiated Political Stability Task Force and was the convener of the international Genocide Prevention Advisory Network. He founded the Minorities at Risk project, based at Maryland's Center for International Development and Conflict Management, which tracks and analyzes the status and conflicts of some 300 politically active communal groups throughout the world.