Burdett A. Loomis

Burdett A. Loomis

Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Kansas

Burdett Loomis has been a political science professor at the University of Kansas since 1979. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin (Madison) in 1974, and served as a American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow in 1975-6, working for Rep. Paul Simon. He won a Kemper Teaching award in 1996 and established a Washington Semester program in 1984, which has given more than 500 Kansas students the opportunity to work in D.C. He has published more than 25 books in various editions, including The New American Politician, Time, Politics, and Policy: A Legislative Year, The Sound of Money, and seven co-edited editions of Interest Group Politics. A long-time contributor to National Public Radio, he has written regular column for The Topeka Capitol-Journal and the Harris chain of newspapers. He served as Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius's director of administrative communication in 2005, and was the interim director of KU's Robert J. Dole Institute from 1997-2001. Loomis has served as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Argentina and has lectured on American politics for the State Department in Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Nepal, and Singapore. He is currently working on a major study of politics in Kansas from the late 1950s through 1974's, as well as a large-scale edited work on American interest groups and lobbying.