Michael R. Solomon, Ph.D. is Professor of Marketing and Director of the Center for Consumer Research in the Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. He also is Professor of Consumer Behaviour at the Manchester School of Business, The University of Manchester, U.K. Prior to joining the St. Joe's faculty in Fall 2006, he was the Human Sciences Professor of Consumer Behavior, at Auburn University and he served as Chairman of the Department of Mar¬keting in the School of Business at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. Prof. Solomon began his academic career in the Graduate School of Business Administration at New York University, where he also served as Associate Director of NYU's Insti¬tute of Retail Management. He earned B.A. degrees in Psychology and Sociology magna cum laude at Brandeis University in 1977, and a Ph.D. in Social Psychology at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1981. He was awarded the Fulbright/FLAD Chair in Market Globalization by The U.S. Fulbright Commission and the Government of Portugal.

Prof. Solomon's primary research interests include consumer behavior and lifestyle issues, branding strategy, the symbolic aspects of products, the psychology of fashion, decoration, and image, services marketing and the development of visually-oriented online research methodologies. He has published numerous articles on these and related topics in academic journals, and he has delivered invited lectures on these subjects in The United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Australia, and Latin America. His research has been funded by the American Academy of Advertising, the American Marketing Association, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the International Council of Shopping Centers and the U.S. Department of Commerce. Four research projects are currently funded by major multi-year grants from The National Textile Center, U.S. Department of Commerce. He currently sits on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Consumer Behaviour, the Journal of Retailing, and The European Business Review, and he recently completed an elected six-year term on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Marketing Science. Prof. Solomon has been recognized as one of the fifteen most widely-cited scholars in the academic behavioral sciences/fashion literature, and as one of the ten most productive scholars in the field of advertising and marketing communications. Prof. Solomon received the Cutty Sark Men's Fashion Award for his research on the psychological aspects of clothing. He is Editor of The Psychology of Fashion and Co Editor of The Serv¬ice Encounter: Managing Employee/Customer Interaction in Services Businesses, both published by Lexington Books. His textbook, Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being, published by Prentice Hall is widely used in universities throughout North America, Europe, and Australasia and is now in its eighth edition. The text has been translated into several languages including Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, German, French, Russian, Chinese and Korean, and separate European and Canadian versions are the market leaders in those areas. Prof. Solomon's text, Marketing: Real People, Real Choices was published in its sixth edition by Prentice Hall in October 2008 and is currently one of the five most widely-adopted Principles of Marketing texts.. Soundview Executive Summaries named his trade book, Conquering Consumerspace: Marketing Strategies for a Branded World, (AMACOM) one of the best business books of 2004. He is the first author of LAUNCH! Advertising and Promotion in Real Time (Flat World Knowledge), which is the first open platform commercial textbook. His trade book, The Truth about What Customers Want , was published in November 2008 by FT Press. Prof. Solomon is a frequent contributor to mass media. His feature articles have appeared in Psychology Today, Gentleman's Quarterly and Savvy. He is often quoted in national magazines and newspapers, including News¬week, The New York Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal. He has appeared on television and radio to comment on consumer behavior issues, including "The Today Show," "Good Morning America," CNBC, Channel One, "Inside Edition," "Newsweek on the Air," The Wall Street Journal Radio Network, the Entrepreneur Sales and Marketing Show, the WOR Radio Network and National Public Radio.