Lawrence Wu is a Professor of Sociology, Director of the Center for Advanced Social Science Research and Deputy Director of the Institute for Human Development and Social Change, all at New York University. He is a noted authority on nonmarital fertility in the United States. He is on the faculty of New York University and has previously been on the faculties of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Princeton University. He is currently Director of the Center for Advanced Social Science Research and Deputy Director of the Institute of Human Development and Social Change. His research has received funding from NICHD, NSF, ASPE, and the William T. Grant Foundation.

Wu received an A.B. in Sociology and Applied Mathematics from Harvard 1980 and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Stanford in 1987.