Dr. Arie Kruglanski, START researcher and University of Maryland Distinguished Professor of Psychology, is no stranger to awards and honors. He has previously received the Donald Campbell Award for Outstanding Contributions to Social Psychology, the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award conferred by the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, the National Institute of Mental Health Research Scientist Award, the University of Maryland Regents Award for Scholarship and Creativity, a Senior Humboldt Award and the Regesz Chair at the University of Amsterdam. But his most recent honor, being inducted into the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology (FPSP) Heritage Wall of Fame, was a particularly impressive recognition.
The Heritage Fund Initiative is designed to celebrate personality and social psychology’s heritage by honoring some of the great teachers and scientists who have made major contributions to the field. The initiative allows students and colleagues to honor a cherished mentor by raising funds to establish an award in their name, which goes to support graduate students conducting dissertation research. Once sufficient funds have been raised, that mentor is placed in the Heritage Wall of Fame.
“I am truly moved by this distinction, being mentioned alongside the greatest minds in international Social Science is extremely meaningful to me, and well beyond my expectations,” Kruglanski said. “The challenge now is to live up to this distinction.”
Kruglanski has been a pioneer in the psychological study of closed-mindedness or the “need for cognitive closure” – and the ways in which epistemic motivation is linked to rigid, fundamentalist belief systems and to violent extremism. He has worked on such START projects such as Deradicalization of Extremists, Counter Radicalization of Scientists in CBRN and Countering Jihadist Ideology among Detainees: The Effects and Effectiveness of De-Radicalization Programs. Additionally, he has published more than 300 journal articles and book chapters, and his work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, the U.S. Air Force, State Department, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Naval Research and the Ford and Templeton Foundations.
Click here to read more about Kruglanski’s career and to see student/colleague testimonials on the FPSP website.