Awards/Honors
2016 Golden Goose Award Ceremony
The 2016 Golden Goose Award Ceremony will be held at 5:30pm on Thursday, September 22 in the Coolidge Auditorium in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. The Golden Goose Award celebrates federally-funded research that may seem obscure but has led to major scientific breakthroughs. This year’s honorees include researchers in the social and behavioral sciences, including the team who conducted the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). Attendance at the award ceremony and reception is free and open to the public. Registration can be found here. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
2016 Golden Goose Awards Choose Landmark Add Health Study
The researchers behind the landmark National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health Study, otherwise known as Add Health, have been chosen to receive the first of the 2016 Golden Goose Awards. The study, conceived by Drs. Peter Bearman, Barbara Entwisle, Kathleen Mullan Harris, Ronald Rindfuss, and Richard Udry in the late 1980s and early 1990s while at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is a federally-funded study designed to “illuminate the impact of social and environmental factors on adolescent health.” The Award honors “scientists whose federally-funded work may have seemed odd or obscure when it was first conducted but…
Social Science Teams among 2015 Golden Goose Winners
Recipients of the 2015 Golden Goose Award were honored at a ceremony in Washington, DC on September 17. The Golden Goose Award recognizes researchers whose federally funded work may have seemed odd or obscure when it was first conducted but has resulted in significant benefits to society. COSSA is a supporter of the Award. The 2015 recipients included a group of psychologists whose work on delayed gratification in children (the “marshmallow test”) had far-reaching implications for our understanding of human behavior, education, and health. The Golden Goose Award also honored two scientists whose collaborative research on “hypsographic demography” (the study…
“Marshmallow Test” Researchers Named First 2015 Golden Goose Award Recipients
The first of the 2015 Golden Goose Awards, which recognize federally funded research that has had unanticipated societal and economic benefits, will go to three psychologists, Walter Mischel, Philip Peake, Yuichi Shoda, for their work related to self-control in children. In the late 1960s, Mischel developed the “marshmallow test” as a simple way to measure children’s ability to delay gratification. However, follow-up studies revealed an unexpected correlation between ability to exert self-control at a young age and success later in life. The work has had an enormous impact on our understanding of human behavior and changed the way we approach…
Social Scientist among National Medal of Science Winners
On October 3, President Obama named the winners of the 2014 National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Among the recipients of the National Medal of Science is University of Michigan political scientist Robert Axelrod, honored for his work on the “evolution of cooperation,” which holds applications for conflict de-escalation. Dr. Axelrod will be awarded the Medal of Science at a White House ceremony later this year. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
Social Scientists Honored for “Golden Goose” Ideas
On September 18, eight scientists were honored with the Golden Goose Award at a ceremony in Washington, DC. The Golden Goose Award honors scientists whose research funded by the federal government has yielded major benefits to society, which could not have been anticipated at the time of funding. COSSA congratulates this year’s awardees, which includes social scientists whose research has had profound impacts on premature infant development and federal auctions of the telecommunications spectrum. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
Social Scientists among 2014 Golden Goose Awardees
On September 18, the scientific community and policy makers will come together to celebrate the winners of this year’s Golden Goose Award at a ceremony in Washington, DC. The Golden Goose Award honors scientists whose research funded by the federal government has yielded major benefits to society, which could not have been anticipated at the time of funding. Among the 2014 awardees is a group of scientists whose research studying the impact of maternal absence on infant rats has significantly improved the ability of premature babies to thrive and has saved billions in health care costs and a group of…