Diane Binson, PhD, is an Assistant Adjunct Professor of Medicine, UCSF CAPS. Dr. Binson is a sociologist and brings considerable expertise in survey research methods, questionnaire construction, and survey analysis to this project. She is well recognized in the field of survey research, sexuality, and HIV, both nationally and internationally. She has been involved in HIV-related research for over 15 years.

In 1986, as part of the CDC-funded Chicago AIDS Prevention and Education Project, Dr. Binson designed and directed the first telephone survey that asked sexual behavior questions of a probability sample of the general population. She also has successfully conducted research involving qualitative designs and was Co-PI of a study funded by the National Center for Health Statistics that used concurrent and retrospective "think aloud" techniques among injection drug users (IDUs) to determine the feasibility of conducting the National Household Seroprevalence Survey among IDUs.

Dr. Binson has been at CAPS since 1991, where she has directed several large national probability surveys assessing AIDS-related behaviors among large numbers of respondents. These studies include the National AIDS Behavioral Studies 2 which studied 5,549 respondents, the National AIDS Behavioral Methodology Survey which studied 2,030 respondents, and the National AIDS Methodology Survey among Minority Populations which studied 1,104 respondents. Her survey methods work has involved assessing the understandings of sexual behavior terms among the general population and the implications of misunderstandings in evaluating the magnitude of risk in the US population and the effects of question wording and interviewer gender on responses to sexual behavior questions.

Dr. Binson was a key member of the research team that designed the Urban Men's Health Study, a telephone survey of a probability sample of 2,881 MSM in four major epicenters: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. During the last seven years, Dr. Binson has been involved in studies that examine gay club environments and that assess behaviors of club patrons. She is currently Co-PI on an NIMH-funded study of club environments, "Social Setting & HIV Risk: Opportunities for Prevention." She also is PI on a California State-funded longitudinal study that compares risk reduction among gay men who access standard versus rapid HIV testing programs in a gay club environment.