Pat Hastings is an associate professor of sociology at Colorado State University. His research focuses on inequalities in families with children. 

In particular, Hastings uses quantitative methods and computational social science to understand parental investments of time and money in children. This includes examining how those patterns of parental investment are changing over time, the factors leading to inequalities in parental investments based on family income, education, race/ethnicity and family structure, and the consequences of those investments on children’s achievement and wellbeing. 

Hastings earned his undergraduate degree in physics and mathematics at Rice University, and went on to receive a Ph.D. in sociology at the University of California Berkeley. His research has been published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, American Sociological Review, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility and more.