Award Winners

Announced at AAPOR 74th Annual Conference

The award is given for outstanding contribution to the field of public opinion research including: advances in theory, empirical research and methods; improvements in ethical standards; and promotion of understanding among the public, media and/or policy makers.

Diana C. Mutz
"Hearing the Other Side: Deliberative versus Participatory Democracy" Cambridge University Press, 2006

The AAPOR Book Award seeks to recognize influential books that have stimulated theoretical and scientific research in public opinion; and/or influenced our understanding or application of survey research methodology. Eligibility for the AAPOR Book Award includes any book in the field that is at least three years old (to allow time for books to be read and reviewed), including any books published before or during the period covered by the list of the Fifty Books that Have Significantly Shaped Public Opinion Research 1946-1995.(The books on the "Fifty Books" list have already been recognized by AAPOR and are not eligible for the annual book award.)

U.S. Census Bureau for the American Community Survey

The AAPOR Policy Impact Award was developed to acknowledge that a key purpose of opinion and other survey research is to facilitate better informed decisions. The award recognizes outstanding research that has had a clear impact on improving policy decisions, practice and discourse, either in the public or private sectors.

Vlad Achimescu, University of Mannheim
Beyza Buyuker, University of Illinois-Chicago
Evgenia Kapousouz, University of Illinois-Chicago
Michael Lenmark, Stony Brook University
P. Linh Nguyen, University of Essex
Tomoko Okada, University of Wisconsin
Maria Isabel Olivera, Queens College – City University of New York (CUNY)
Anthony Rentsch, Harvard University
Melike Saraç, Hacettepe University
William Young, Rutgers University
Simon Heuberger, American University

The AAPOR Student Travel Award was established to fund students to attend the AAPOR Annual Conference. The Student Travel Awards are offered to students who are in need of financial support so that they may attend the annual conference and experience this important educational and collegial event for survey methodology and public opinion researchers.

James S. Jackson, PhD, Daniel Katz Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan, for innovative survey data collection methods for studying the political, social, psychological, and mental health of African Americans.

The Warren J. Mitofsky Innovators Award recognizes accomplishments in the fields of public opinion and survey research that occurred in the past ten years or that had their primary impact on the field during the past decade. The innovations could consist of new theories, ideas, applications, methodologies or technologies. To be considered for the award, innovations must be publicly documented. The award can be given to individuals, groups or institutions.

Eva Aizpurua, Trinity College Dublin
Suman Mathur, Health District of Northern Larimer County
Andrew Pickett, University of South Dakota
Ruben Bach, University of Mannheim
Marieke Haan, University of Groningen
Candace Bright, East Tennessee State University 

The Burns "Bud" Roper Fellow Award is named for the late Burns "Bud" Roper who provided a substantial bequest in his will to endow the Roper Award fund. Roper Fellows are people whose primary work responsibilities are related to survey research or public opinion and who have recently started their careers. They receive financial assistance to help them attend the annual conference and/or participate in conference short courses; most are first-time conference attendees.

Andrew Mercer, University of Maryland
"Decomposing selection bias in non-probability surveys"

The Seymour Sudman Student Paper Competition Award is in memory of Seymour Sudman; it recognizes his many important contributions to AAPOR as well as his teaching and mentoring students in the survey research profession.

Winner Announced at AAPOR Conference

The Student Poster Competition honors the best student poster presented at the AAPOR annual conference. To be eligible for the award, students must have their poster abstracts accepted for presentation at the conference. The award committee will consider all posters that relate to the study of public opinion, whether they focus on theory, substantative findings, research methods, and/or statistical techniques used in such research.

National Survey of Latinos (NSL)

This honor recognizes scholars/researchers, organizations, or institutions who have produced the important data sets, research, and survey methods that have improved the ability to study complex social phenomena related to understudied and underserved, and therefore under-voiced populations. 

Judith Lessler

The Sirken Award in Interdisciplinary Survey Research Methods Research is given annually to a distinguished survey researcher for contributions to interdisciplinary survey research that improve the theory and methods of collecting, verifying, processing , presenting  or analyzing survey data. 

Kirils Makarovs, University of Essex, United Kingdom, “Does public support for the welfare state translate into support for the environmental state?” 

This award is given in memory of Dr. Harkness, distinguished cross-cultural survey methodologist, who passed away in 2012.