He was appointed Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Houston in 1991 and joined the Columbia University faculty in 1999.
[1] He was also a visiting professor at Washington University in St. Louis and the California Institute of Technology.
Erikson's research focuses on political behavior and elections and quantitative methodology.
He is the author of the popular textbook American Public Opinion: Its Origins, Content, and Impact and The Macro Polity, which provided the first comprehensive model of American politics at the system level.
[1] Erikson was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007.