2021 Waterman Award

The National Science Foundation (NSF) named Dr. Nicholas Cranes, Creed C. Black Associate Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at Duke University as the 2021 Alan T.

Waterman Award recipient. Dr. Carnes is recognized for his path-breaking research on how a range of societal institutions influence opportunity and inequality in the United States.

Dr Carnes's new area of scholarship offers new clarity on causes and consequences of changing circumstances for workers and their families. His innovative work offers original, invaluable, and comprehensive data for gaining new insights on how to improve quality of life for millions of Americans.

Dr. Carnes's research explores the impacts of diversity in educational background, gender, and other demographic characteristics on representation, policy-making, and decision-making. His work shows how people can be represented in decisions of great importance and how expanding opportunities for underrepresented groups can produce economic growth that benefits an increasingly diverse range of citizens.

Moreover, in collaborative research, Dr. Carnes explores government and governance in a global context by drawing on cross-national data to examine the correlation between the educational background of leaders and policy outcomes.

Dr. Carnes won the American Political Science Association's (APSA) Harold D. Laswell Award for best dissertation in public policy and APSA's Legislative Studies Section's Carl Albert Award for the best doctoral dissertation in legislative studies.

In 2014, his book White Collar Government: the Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policy Making won both the APSA's Gladys Kammerer Prize for the best book in US national policy and the Alan Rosenthal Prize for Best Book or Article Written by a Junior Scholar that has Potential Value to Legislative Practitioners (given by APSA’s legislative studies section).

Dr. Carnes received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Tulsa (2006), an M.A. in Politics from Princeton University (2008), and a Ph.D. in Politics and Social Policy from Princeton University (2011). He joined the faculty of Duke University in 2011, first as a lecturer and subsequently as an assistant and associate professor

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.