Alex Thio is Professor of Sociology at Ohio University. Born of Chinese parentage in Penang, Malaysia, he grew up in a multicultural environment. He acquired fluency in Mandarin (modern standard Chinese), Malay, and Indonesian. He also picked up a smattering of English and Dutch. He took French and German in high school and college.

Professor Thio attended primary school in Malaysia and high school in Indonesia. He then came to the United States and worked his way through Central Methodist College in Missouri, where he majored in social sciences. Later, he studied sociology as a graduate student at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and he completed his doctorate while working as a research and teaching assistant.

Professor Thio regularly teaches courses in deviance, introductory sociology, social problems, and criminology. In addition to teaching, he enjoys writing. He is the author of the Sociology: A Brief Introduction, Society: Myths and Realities (Penguin Academic), and Deviant Behavior.