Leonard Broom (1911-2009) was a distinguished professor of sociology in a career spanning seven decades, with appointments at UCLA, UT Austin, the Australian National University and most recently at UCSB. He served as editor of the American Sociological Review (1955-57) and co-authored (with Philip Selznick, UC Berkeley) one of the first and most successful textbooks in sociology. Broom's early research on the effects of US internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII made him an early critic of that policy and shaped his life-long interest in social inequality and discrimination against minority and marginalized populations.

One of Broom's most lasting contributions may be his effect on the discipline of sociology. He was instrumental in shaping the development of a strong department while Chair at UCLA and later while Chair at the University of Texas. At Texas, he founded the Population Research Center, which remains one of the strengths of that department. In Australia in the mid-1960s, he was a critical adviser and influential voice in the creation of a department of sociology at The Australian National University and in the foundation of the Sociological Association of Australia and New Zealand, as well as the foundation the association's journal, which remains the major conduit for peer-reviewed academic work in Australia.