2026 AAPOR Award Winners

AAPOR is pleased to present a portfolio of awards to recognize distinguished work in the profession.

Professional Awards

AAPOR Book Award

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 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 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.)

2026 Award Winner

What Goes Without Saying: Navigating Political Discussion in America
(2022, Cambridge University Press)
by Taylor N. Carlson and Jaime E. Settle

Past Award Winners

AAPOR Inclusive Voices Award

The AAPOR Inclusive Voices Award recognizes the important data sets, research, and survey methods that have improved the ability to study complex social phenomena related to understudied populations. The award will be presented to the scholars/researchers, organizations, or institutions who have produced the scholarship (including data collection, methodological approaches, or publications).

2026 Award Winner

KFF Surveys of Immigrants Project
Co-Authors: Shannon Schumacher, Liz Hamel, Samantha Artiga, Drishti Pillai, Ashley Kirzinger, Audrey Kearney, Marley Presiado, Isabelle Valdes, Julian Montalvo III, Mollyann Brodie (KFF); Eran Ben-Porath, Cameron McPhee, Emily Jennings, Payel Sen (SSRS); David Lauter (formerly LA Times); Ruth Igielnik, Will Davis (NY Times)

Past Award Winners

AAPOR Policy Impact Award

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.

2026 Award Winner

Annenberg Science and Public Health (ASAPH) Survey
Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania (APPC)
Co-Authors: Kathleen Hall Jamieson; Kenneth Winneg; Patrick Jamieson; Shawn Patterson; Laura A. Gibson; Dan Romer; Michael Rozansky

Past Award Winners

AAPOR Public Service Award

The AAPOR Public Service Award is intended to recognize and honor outstanding public service and dedication to maintaining AAPOR standards. It recognizes persons who work on behalf of the public sector and have contributed to the quality of government surveys, data systems, research, leadership, and/or policy.

2026 Award Winner

Diane Willimack
Retired, National Agricultural Statistical Service & Census Bureau

Past Award Winners

The Burns “Bud” Roper Fellow Award

This award is intended to help people working in survey research or public opinion research who are in the early stages of their careers attend the AAPOR Annual Conference and participate in short courses.

2026 Award Winners
Cecilia Bisogno, Data for Progress
Hayley Boote, SSRS
Robby Born, California State University, Long Beach
Alexandros Christos Gkotinakos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Mengdi Ji, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan
Christopher Jimenez
Steven Jokinsky, Center for Social and Behavioral Research at the University of Northern Iowa
Lola Laniyi, EVITARUS
Alexander Lloyd, Georgia Alliance for Progress
Muhammad Nouman Nazar, University of Minnesota and National College of Business Administration and Economics, Lahore, Pakistan
Jordan Reuter, SSRS
Raquel Rosenbloom, NORC at the University of Chicago
Joseph Rua, Ocean County College
Yao Sun, Michigan Program in Survey and Data Science, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan
Leah von der Heyde, GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences

Student Awards

AAPOR Seymour Sudman Student Paper Competition Award

This award honors the best student paper presented at the AAPOR Annual Conference. The Awards Committee considers all papers relating to the study of public opinion, focusing on theory, substantive findings, research methods, and/or statistical techniques used in such research.

2026 Award Winner

Ujjayini Das, University of Maryland College Park
“Design-Aware Ordinal Weighted Likelihood Bootstrap (D-OWLB): A Novel Model-Based Inference Method for Ordinal Disparity Measures from Complex Surveys”

Honorable Mention

Muzhi Liu, Columbia University
“When Partisan Anchors Make Parties Legible: Transnational Partisan Generalization After U.S. Political Violence”

AAPOR Student Conference Travel Award

These awards are offered to students so that they may attend the Annual Conference and experience this important educational and professional networking event for survey methodology and public opinion researchers.

2026 Award Winners

Ahmed Alyousef, Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University
Ali Amini, American University
Valeria Castaneda Saucedo, University of Michigan
Anna Fuchs, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Maddie Holtz, Rutgers University
Jaehoon Kim, University of Michigan
Kim Larson, Willamette University
Jerrick Little, Willamette University
Sergio Martinez, University of Michigan
Srijeeta Mitra, University of Maryland
Axel Smart, Willamette University
Donald Snyder, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

AAPOR Student Inclusion Fellowship

Sponsored by Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles

This fellowship targets students of historically underrepresented groups interested in the study of public opinion & survey research methodology.

2026 Award Winners

Theresa Bartelme, Harvard University
Nashwa Faruk, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
Asia Foland, Harvard University
Brithney Lachira, Rutgers University
Cloud Li, Rutgers University New Brunswick
Nicholas Reign Lugu, University of Maryland, College Park
Stephanie Morales, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Emirhan Ozkan, Rutgers University
Michelle Park, Harvard University
Deji Suolang, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Juan Wulff, Harvard University