Dunnette Prize Invited Address

The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) and the SIOP Foundation awarded the second Dunnette Prize to Dr. Thomas J. Bouchard, Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota, for his contributions to the study of individual differences.  Tom led the groundbreaking Minnesota Study of Twins Raised Apart (MISTRA). The Dunnette Prize Address recording from the 2018 SIOP Annual Conference debuted on August 22.

Bouchard’s conference address, “Finding Out How Things Work,” combines a comprehensive and well-documented scientific history of the work with a compelling story about people doing science. The video includes a link to the presentation slides, making it a valuable teaching resource. View the video here.

The Dunnette Prize is given to honor living individuals whose work has significantly expanded knowledge of the causal significance of individual differences through advanced research, development, and/or application. It was created in memory of the late Marvin D. Dunnette, who devoted his career to studying the effects of individual differences on human behavior and performance. Learn more about Dr. Dunnette in his SIOP presidential memoir.

With a cash purse of $50,000, the Dunnette Prize is one of the most prestigious awards in psychology. Bouchard was nominated for the award by SIOP Fellow and current SIOP APA Representative Jeff McHenry, principal of Rainier Leadership Solutions. Frank Schmidt, Fethke Leadership Chair and Professor Emeritus at the University of Iowa, who was the inaugural recipient of the award, also endorsed Bouchard’s nomination.

In his nomination for the prize, McHenry wrote, “Dr. Bouchard has been a role model for scientific openness. He has actively invited collaborators. Numerous researchers from a variety of disciplines, from healthcare to I-O psychology, have tapped into the data collected by Dr. Bouchard to study critical individual difference phenomena.”

In addition to The Dunnette Prize, Bouchard has won more than a dozen awards, including the 2005 Kistler Prize and the American Psychological Foundation’s Gold Medal for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology in 2014. Since 1968, Bouchard has published over 200 papers in collected works and peer reviewed journals. His publication credits include the prestigious journals Science and Nature. Thomas Bouchard is still actively pursuing research and publishing in his retirement.