Science, Technology & Environmental Politics Section Award Recipients
More on the Science, Technology & Environmental Politics section
Evan Ringquist Best Paper Award
Don K. Price Award
Lynton Keith Caldwell Prize
Virginia M. Walsh Dissertation Award
Elinor Ostrom Career Achivement Award
Emerging Young Scholar Award
Sabatier Best Conference Paper Award
The STEP APSA Inclusion Travel Award
The Evan Ringquist Best Paper Award
The Best Paper Award is given for the best paper published in a relevant journal in the last two years. Relevant journals include political science, public administration, public policy, interdisciplinary environmental science, and science and technology studies journals.
| 2025 | Mark Buntaine, University of California, Santa Barbara Polycarp Komakech, University of California, Santa Barbara Shiran Victoria Shen, Stanford University “Social competition drives collective action to reduce informal waste burning in Uganda.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121(23). 2024. |
| 2024 | Annemieke van den Dool, Duke Kunshan University “The multiple streams framework in a nondemocracy: The infeasibility of a national ban on live poultry sales in China.” Policy Studies Journal 51(2): 327-349. 2023. |
| 2023 | Jorge Mangonnet, University of Oxford “Playing Politics with Environmental Protection: The Political Economy of Designating Protected Areas.” Journal of Politics, 2022. |
| 2023 | Jacob Kopas, Independent Scholar “Playing Politics with Environmental Protection: The Political Economy of Designating Protected Areas.” Journal of Politics, 2022. |
| 2023 | Johannes Urpelainen, Johns Hopkins University “Playing Politics with Environmental Protection: The Political Economy of Designating Protected Areas.” Journal of Politics, 2022. |
| 2021 | Amanda Kennard, Stanford University “The Enemy of My Enemy: When Firms Support Climate Change Regulation.” International Organization. 2020, 74(2), 187-221. |
| 2020 | Sarah E. Anderson, University of California, Santa Barbara “Non-Governmental Monitoring of Local Governments Increases Compliance with Central Mandates: A National-Scale Field Experiment in China.” American Journal of Political Science, 2019. |
| 2020 | Mark T. Buntaine, University of California, Santa Barbara “Non-Governmental Monitoring of Local Governments Increases Compliance with Central Mandates: A National-Scale Field Experiment in China.” American Journal of Political Science, 2019. |
| 2020 | Mengdi Liu, Nanjing University “Non-Governmental Monitoring of Local Governments Increases Compliance with Central Mandates: A National-Scale Field Experiment in China.” American Journal of Political Science, 2019. |
| 2020 | Bing Zhang, Nanjing University “Non-Governmental Monitoring of Local Governments Increases Compliance with Central Mandates: A National-Scale Field Experiment in China.” American Journal of Political Science, 2019. |
| 2019 | Aditya Das Gupta, University of California, Merced “Technological Change and Political Turnover: The Democratizing Effects of the Green Revolution in India.” American Political Science Review 112 (4): 918–938. |
| 2018 | Jonas Nahm, Johns Hopkins University “The Power of Process: State Capacity and Climate Policy.” |
| 2018 | Jonas Meckling, University of California, Berkeley “The Power of Process: State Capacity and Climate Policy.” |
| 2017 | Erika S. Simmons, University of Wisconsin – Madison “Market Reforms and Water Wars.” World Politics. 68 (1):37-73. |
| 2016 | Arun Agrawal, University of Michigan Motivational Crowding in Sustainable Development InterventionsAmerican Political Science Review |
| 2016 | Ashwini Chhatre, Indian School of Business Motivational Crowding in Sustainable Development InterventionsAmerican Political Science Review |
| 2016 | Elisabeth R. Gerber, University of Michigan Motivational Crowding in Sustainable Development InterventionsAmerican Political Science Review |
| 2015 | Neil Carter, University of York “Greening the Mainstream: Party Politics and the Environment” |
| 2009 | Jonneke Koomen, University of Minnesota “The Global Governance of Culture: Compaigns against Female Circumcision in East Africa” |
| 1995 | Jeanette Hofmann, Wissenchaftszentrum Berlin fur Sozialforschung “Implicit Theories in Political Discourse: A Critique of Interpretations of Reality in Technology Policy” |
Don K. Price Award
The Don K. Price Award recognizes the best book on science, technology, and politics published in the last year.
| 2025 | Thomas Hale, Oxford University Long Problems: Climate Change and the Challenge of Governing across Time. Princeton University Press, 2024. |
| 2024 | Dustin Tingley, Harvard University Uncertain Futures: How to Unlock the Climate Impasse. Cambridge University Press, 2023. |
| 2024 | Alexander F. Gazmararian, Princeton University Uncertain Futures: How to Unlock the Climate Impasse. Cambridge University Press, 2023. |
| 2023 | Jennifer Forestal, Loyola University Chicago |
| 2022 | Jonas Nahm, Johns Hopkins University Collaborative Advantage: Forging Green Industries in the New Global Economy, Oxford University Press, 2021. |
| 2021 | Leah Stokes, University of California, Santa Barbara Short-Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States. Oxford University Press, 2021. |
| 2019 | Bentley Allan, Johns Hopkins University Scientific Cosmology and International Orders. Cambridge University Press, 2018. |
| 2018 | Alan S. Gerber, Yale University Unhealthy Politics: The Battle Over Evidence-Based Medicine. Princeton University Press. 2018. |
| 2018 | Conor M. Dowling, University of Mississippi Unhealthy Politics: The Battle Over Evidence-Based Medicine. Princeton University Press. 2018. |
| 2018 | Eric M. Patashnik, Brown University Unhealthy Politics: The Battle Over Evidence-Based Medicine. Princeton University Press. 2018. |
| 2017 | Mark Buntaine, University of California, Santa Barbara Giving Aid Effectively: The Politics of Environmental Performance and Selectivity at Multilateral Development Banks, Oxford University Press, 2016. |
| 2017 | Mark Zachary Taylor, Georgia Tech The Politics of Innovation: Why Some Countries Are Better Than Others at Science and Technology, Oxford University Press, 2016. |
| 2016 | Jennifer Hadden, University of Maryland Networks in Contention: The Divisive Politics of Climate Change. |
| 2015 | David M. Konisky, Georgetown University Cheap and Clean: How Americans Think about Energy and the Age of Global Warming. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 2014 |
| 2015 | Stephen Ansolabehere, Harvard University Cheap and Clean: How Americans Think about Energy and the Age of Global Warming. MIT Press, 2014. |
| 2014 | Ethan Kapstein, Arizona State University AIDS Drugs for All: Social Movements and Market Transformations. Cambridge University Press, 2013 |
| 2014 | Joshua Busby, University of Texas at Austin AIDS Drugs for All: Social Movements and Market Transformations. Cambridge University Press, 2013 |
| 2013 | Jacques Hymans, University of Southern California Achieving Nuclear Ambitions: Scientists, Politicians and Proliferation (Cambrige University Press 2012) |
| 2012 | Michael Berkman, Pennsylvania State University Evolution, Creationism, and the Battle to Control America’s Classrooms (Cambridge University Press, 2010) |
| 2012 | Eric Plutzer, Pennsylvania State University Evolution, Creationism, and the Battle to Control America’s Classrooms (Cambridge University Press, 2010) |
| 2011 | Ann Keller, University of California, Berkeley Science in Environmental Policy |
| 2010 | Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger, National University of Singapore Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age |
| 2009 | Steven Epstein, Northwestern University Inclusion: The Politics of Differnce in Medical Research (University of Chicago Press, 2007) |
| 2008 | Dan Breznitz, Georgia Institute of Technology Innovation and the State: Political Choice and Strategies for Growth in Israel, Taiwan, and Ireland (Yale University Press, 2007) |
| 2007 | Yochai Benkler, Yale Law School The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom (Yale University Press, 2006) |
| 2006 | Darrell West, Brown University Digital Government: Technology and Public Sector Performance (Princeton University Press, 2005) |
| 2005 | Thomas Bernauer, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich Genes, Trade, and Regulation: The Seeds of Conflict in Food Biotechnology (Princeton University Press, 2004). |
| 2004 | Bruce Bimber, University of California, Santa Barbara Information and American Democracy: Technology in the Evolution of Political Power (Cambridge University Press, 2003) |
| 2003 | Joel Mokyr, Northwestern University The Gifts of Athena |
| 2002 | David Guston Between Politics and Science: Assuring the Integrity and Productivity of Research |
| 1998 | Sheila Jasanoff, Harvard University Science at the Bar: Law, Science, and Technology in America (Harvard University Press, 1995) |
| 1996 | Richard Sclove, The Loka Institute Democracy and Technology (Guilford, 1995) |
| 1994 | Scott Sagan, Stanford University |
Lynton Keith Caldwell Prize
The Lynton Keith Caldwell Prize is given for the best book on environmental politics and policy published in the past three years.
| 2025 | Denise Sienli van der Kamp, Oxofrd University Clean Air at What Cost? The Rise of Blunt Force Regulation in China. Cambridge University Press, 2023. |
| 2024 | David Switzer, University of Missouri The Profits of Distrust: Citizen Consumers, Drinking Water and the Crisis of Confidence in the American Government. Cambridge University Press, 2022. |
| 2023 | Chris Armstrong, University of South Hampton A Blue New Deal: Why We Need a New Politics for the Ocean. Yale University Press, 2022. |
| 2022 | Janina Grabs, ESADE Business School Selling Sustainability Short?: The Private Governance of Labor and the Environment in the Coffee Sector, Cambridge University Press, 2020. |
| 2021 | Kimberly K. Smith, Carleton College The Conservation Constitution, The conservation movement and constitutional change 1870-1930. University Press of Kansas, 2019. |
| 2020 | Eve Z. Bratman, Franklin & Marshall College Governing the Rainforest: Sustainable Development Politics in the Brazilian Amazon. Oxford University Press (2019) |
| 2019 | David Vogel, University of California, Berkeley California Greenin’. Princeton University Press, 2018. |
| 2018 | Roger Karapin, CUNY Hunter College Political Opportunities for Climate Policy: California, New York, and the Federal Government. Cambridge University Press. 2018. |
| 2017 | Leigh Raymond, Purdue University Reclaiming the Atmospheric Commons: The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and a New Model of Emissions Trading. MIT Press, 2016. |
| 2016 | Jennifer Hadden, University of Maryland Networks in Contention: The Divisive Politics of Climate Change. Cambridge University, 2015 |
| 2016 | Graeme Auld, Carleton University Constructing Private Governance: The Rise and Evolution of Forest, Coffee, and Fisheries Certification. Yale University Press, 2014 |
| 2015 | Jessica F. Green, Case Western Reserve University Rethinking Private Authority: Agents and Entrepreneurs in Global Environmental Governance. Princeton University Press, 2014. |
| 2014 | David Vogel, University of California, Berkeley The Politics of Precaution: Regulating Health, Safety and Environmental Risks in Europe and the United States. Princeton University Press, 2012 |
| 2013 | Judith Layzer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Open for Business: Conservatives’ Opposition to Environmental Regulation (Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press 2012) |
| 2012 | Michael Kraft, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay Coming Clean: Information Disclosure and Environmental Performance (MIT Press, 2011) |
| 2012 | Mark Stephan, Washington State University, Vancouver Coming Clean: Information Disclosure and Environmental Performance (MIT Press, 2011) |
| 2012 | Troy Abel, Western Washington University Coming Clean: Information Disclosure and Environmental Performance (MIT Press, 2011) |
Virginia M. Walsh Dissertation Award
The Virginia Walsh Dissertation Award, named in honor of a young scholar who tragically passed away, is given for the best dissertations in the field of science, technology and environmental politics.
| 2025 | Guoer Liu, University of California, San Diego “Why Automated Data is Biased: The Politics of Air Quality Data in China. “ |
| 2024 | Christina Toenshoff, Leiden University “Hiding in the Crowd: Corporate Climate Lobbying Under Investor and Consumer Pressure.” Stanford University. |
| 2023 | Noah Zucker, Princeton University “Social Ties & Climate Politics.” Dissertation, Columbia University |
| 2022 | Michael Lerner, London School of Economics and Political Science “Green Catalysts? The Impact of Transnational Advocacy on Environmental Policy Leadership” |
| 2021 | Alexander Gard-Murray, University of Oxford “Splitting the Check: A Political Economy of Climate Change Policy” |
| 2020 | Jared J. Finnegan, Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University |
| 2019 | Janina Grabs, Yale University “The Effectiveness of Market-Driven Regulatory Sustainability Governance: Assessing the Design of Private Sustainability Standards and Their Impacts on Latin American Coffee Farmers’ Production Practice.” |
| 2018 | Gregory Thaler, University of Georgia “Forest Governance and Global Development: The Land Sparing Fallacy in Brazil and Indonesia.” Cornell University |
| 2017 | Yue (Iza) Ding, University of Pittsburgh “Invisible Sky, Visible State: Environmental Governance and Political Support in China.” |
| 2016 | Matto Mildenberger, University of California, Santa Barbara “Fiddling While the World Burns: The Double Representation of Carbon Polluters in Comparative Climate Policymaking.” Yale University, 2015 |
| 2015 | Stefan Renckens, University of Toronto “Regulating Transnational Private Governance: Domestic Interests, Market Fragmentation, and Institutional Fit in the European Union.” |
| 2014 | Alexander Ovodenko, Princeton University “Pathways of Cooperation: Integrated and Unintegrated International Environmental Governance.” 2013 |
| 2013 | Steven Samford, University of Notre Dame “High Road Development in a Low-Tech Industry: Policymakers, Producer Networks, and the Co-Production of Innovation in the Mexican Ceramics Sector.” |
| 2012 | Jennifer Hadden, University of Maryland Contesting Climate Change: Civil Society Networks and Collective Action in the European Union (Completed at Cornell University; advised by Sidney Tarrow) |
| 2012 | Kemi Fuentes-George, Middlebury College Scientific Knowledge, Epistemic Communities and Environmental Policy in the Developing World (Completed at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; advised by Peter Haas) |
| 2011 | Jessica Green, Case Western Reserve University Private Actors, Public Goods: Private Authority in Global Environmental Politics |
| 2010 | Jennifer Bussell, University of Louisville Resisting Reform: Technological Backwardness in Political Perspective |
| 2009 | Ngeta Kabiri, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill “Global Environmental Governance and Community Based Conservation in Kenya and Tanzania” |
| 2008 | Zak Taylor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology “The Political Economy of Technological Change: A Change in the Debate” |
| 2006 | Sangbum Shin, University of Oregon “From Red to Green: Economic Globalization and Environmental Protection in China” |
| 2005 | Daniel Sherman, University of Puget Sound Not Here, Not There: The Federal, State, and Local Politics of Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal in the United States (Cornell, August 2004). |
Elinor Ostrom Career Achievement Award
The Elinor Ostrom Career Achievement Award is given to an individual in recognition of their lifetime contribution to the study of science, technology, and environmental politics. Nominees must be at least 15 years from completing their PhD degree to be eligible.
| 2025 | Barry Rabe, University of Michigan |
| 2024 | Mark Lubell, University of California, Davis |
| 2023 | Michele Betsill, University of Copenhagen |
| 2022 | Edella Schlager, University of Arizona |
| 2021 | Peter May, University of Washington |
| 2020 | Aseem Prakash, University of Washington |
| 2019 | Thomas Bernauer, ETH Zurich |
| 2018 | Ronald Mitchell, University of Oregon |
| 2017 | David Vogel, University of California, Berkeley |
| 2016 | Margaret Keck, Johns Hopkins University |
| 2015 | Helen Ingram, University of California, Irvine (Emeritus) |
Emerging Young Scholar Award
The Emerging Young Scholar Award is given in recognition of a researcher, within ten years of their PhD degree, who is making notable contributions to the field of science, technology, and environmental politics.
| 2025 | Tara Grillos, Purdue University |
| 2024 | Tyler Scott, University of California, Davis |
| 2023 | Elizabeth Koebele, University of Nevada, Reno |
| 2022 | Hontao Yi, Ohio State University |
| 2021 | Patrick Bayer, University of Strathclyde |
| 2021 | Gwen Arnold, University of California, Davis |
| 2020 | Mark T. Buntaine, University of California, Santa Barbara |
| 2019 | Jonas Meckling, University of California, Berkeley |
| 2018 | Rachel Krause, University of Kansas |
| 2017 | Jessica Green, New York University |
| 2016 | Graeme Auld, Carleton University |
| 2015 | David Konisky, Georgetown University |
Sabatier Best Conference Paper Award
The Paul A. Sabatier Best Conference Paper Award is given for the best paper on science, technology, and environmental politics presented at the previous year’s APSA Annual Meeting.
| 2025 | Joshua A. Schwartz, Carnegie Mellon University Christopher W. Blair, Princeton University Sabrina B. Arias, Lehigh University “Beyond Meating Climate Goals: The Unpopularity of Masculine-Threatening Climate Policies.” |
| 2023 | Ishana Ratan, University of California, Berkeley “When do Local Governments Improve Transparency? Bureaucratic Champions for Open Transit Data in California.” |
| 2023 | Alison E. Post, University of California, Berkeley “When do Local Governments Improve Transparency? Bureaucratic Champions for Open Transit Data in California.” |
| 2023 | Tanu Kumar, Claremont Graduate University “When do Local Governments Improve Transparency? Bureaucratic Champions for Open Transit Data in California.” |
| 2023 | Mridang Sheth, University of California, Berkeley “When do Local Governments Improve Transparency? Bureaucratic Champions for Open Transit Data in California.” |
| 2022 | Alice Xu, Harvard University “The Political Origins of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, 2000-2012,” Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of APSA, 2021. |
| 2021 | Saad Bulzar, Stanford University “Representation and Forest Conservation: Evidence from India’s Scheduled Areas.” Paper Presented at the 2020 APSA Annual Meeting. |
| 2021 | Apoorva Lal, Stanford University “Representation and Forest Conservation: Evidence from India’s Scheduled Areas.” Paper Presented at the 2020 APSA Annual Meeting. |
| 2021 | Benjamin Pasquale, Independent Researcher “Representation and Forest Conservation: Evidence from India’s Scheduled Areas.” Paper Presented at the 2020 APSA Annual Meeting. |
| 2020 | Eric Merkley, University of Toronto Are Experts (News)Worthy? Balance, Conflict and Mass Media Coverage of Expert Consensus. APSA 2019 Conference, Washington, D.C. |
| 2019 | Debra Javeline, University of Notre Dame “Does It Matter if You “Believe” in Climate Change? The Example of Coastal Home Vulnerability.” |
| 2019 | Tracy Kijewski-Correa, University of Notre Dame “Does It Matter if You “Believe” in Climate Change? The Example of Coastal Home Vulnerability.” |
| 2019 | Angela Chesler, University of Notre Dame “Does It Matter if You “Believe” in Climate Change? The Example of Coastal Home Vulnerability.” |
| 2018 | Nikita Sinha, University of California, Davis “Understanding Local Fracking Regulatory Stringency.” |
| 2018 | Michael Bybee, University of California, Davis “Understanding Local Fracking Regulatory Stringency.” |
| 2018 | Madeline Gottlieb, University of California, Davis “Understanding Local Fracking Regulatory Stringency.” |
| 2018 | Le And Nguyen Long, University of California, Davis “Understanding Local Fracking Regulatory Stringency.” |
| 2018 | Gwen Arnold, University of California, Davis “Understanding Local Fracking Regulatory Stringency.” |
| 2017 | Shiran Shen, Stanford University “The Inconvenient Truth of the Political Pollution Cycle: Theory and Evidence from Chinese Prefectures.” |
| 2016 | Sarah E. Anderson, University of California, Santa Barbara Salience of Wildfire Risks and the Management of Public Lands.” APSA Annual Meeting, 2015 |
| 2016 | Heather Hodges, Reed College Salience of Wildfire Risks and the Management of Public Lands.” APSA Annual Meeting, 2015 |
| 2016 | Matthew Wibbenmeyer, University of California, Santa Barbara Salience of Wildfire Risks and the Management of Public Lands.” APSA Annual Meeting, 2015 |
| 2016 | Andrew J. Plantinga, University of California, Santa Barbara Salience of Wildfire Risks and the Management of Public Lands.” APSA Annual Meeting, 2015 |
| 2015 | Elizabeth A. Albright, Duke University |
| 2015 |
Deserai A. Crow, University of Colorado, Boulder “Learning Processes, Public and Stakeholder Engagement: Analyzing Responses to Colorado’s Extreme Flood Events of 2013.” |
The STEP APSA Inclusion Travel Award
The STEP APSA Inclusion Travel Award will be granted to graduate students from under-represented groups in the discipline who are accepted to present a paper at the annual APSA meeting.
| 2025 | Sara Saastamoinen, University of Hawai’i at Maānoa |
| 2024 | Ariana Montoya–Lozano, Purdue University |
| 2019 | Juhi Huda, University of Colorado Boulder |
| 2019 | Jongeun You, University of Colorado Denver |