Paul Felix Lazarsfeld (February 13, 1901 – August 30, 1976) was one of the major figures in 20th-century American sociology. The founder of Columbia University's Bureau of Applied Social Research, he exerted a tremendous influence over the techniques and the organization of social research. "It is not so much that he was an American sociologist," one colleague said of him after his death, "as it was that he determined what American sociology would be." Paul Lazarsfeld said that his goal was “to produce Paul Lazarsfelds. In proclaiming this as his goal, it was a heavy burden of expectations to lay unto his proteges due to the overwhelming accomplishments associated with his name within the discipline of communication studies. The two main accomplishments he is associated with can be analyzed within two lenses of analysis: research institutes, methodology, as well as his research content itself.