Lifetime Award for SPSS Co-Founder

Norman Nie, Chairman and co-founder of MR and predictive analytics software giant SPSS, has been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR).

The award recognises his eminence and groundbreaking work in survey research tools and methodology, and his award-winning writing, over three decades. Dr. Nie is also co-founder and Vice Chairman of consumer panel firm Knowledge Networks, Inc.

He co-founded SPSS in 1968 and served as its CEO until 1992,building it into one of the US' leading software companies dedicated to the widespread use of statistics.

A specialist in research into public opinion, voting behavior and citizen participation, he has twice won the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for the best book published in political science (in 1976, for The Changing American Voter, and 1996 for Education and Democratic Citizenship in America). He is also the author of Participation in America, which received the Gladys M. Kammerer Award from the American Political Science Association for the best publication in the field of U.S. public policy in 1972.

Dr. Nie was Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago for 25 years, and was twice Chairman of that department and a Senior Study Director at the National Opinion Research Center. He serves as Director of the Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society (SIQSS); Research Professor of Political Science at Stanford University; and in the last ten years has spent time as Technology Partner at Oak Investment Partners and a Senior Scientist at the Gallup Organization.

Since the award was established in 1955, AAPOR has typically honored one person each year for a lifetime of innovative work in research. The award recognises advances in theory, empirical research and methods; improvements in ethical standards; and the promotion of understanding among the public, media and/or policy makers. Past winners include Frank Stanton, Burns W. Roper, and Andrew Kohut.

SPSS is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and is online at www.spss.com . AAPOR's web site is at www.aapor.org .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.