We are grieving for our treasured friend and colleague Prof. Dr. Volker Stocké. Volker Stocké passed away unexpectedly last week. With his work, he made an enormous contribution to the field of national and international education research. His broad theoretical knowledge and his analytical precision has made a lasting impact also on our work.

As a member of the consortium for the foundation of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), Volker Stocké was strongly involved in the preparation of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). Moreover, he also coordinated the study “BiKS–Educational Processes, Competence Development and Selection Decisions in Preschool- and School Age (Bildungsprozesse, Kompetenzentwicklung und Selektionsentscheidungen im Vor- und Grundschulalter)”, known as the forerunner of the NEPS. Volker Stocké was in charge of setting up the NEPS Research Unit “Social Inequalities and Educational Decisions Across the Life Course”, and he was appointed as Professor of Sociology With a Special Focus on Longitudinal Education Research (W3) at the University of Bamberg in 2009. In March 2012, he accepted the Professorship for Methods of Empirical Social Research (W3) at the University of Kassel.