Rein Taagepera, UCI political science research professor, has been awarded the 2014 Constantine Panunzio Distinguished Emeriti Award. Presented by the Council of University of California Emeriti Associations, the honor recognizes one to two outstanding faculty each year in the humanities and/or social sciences for research and scholarly activities since retirement.  The honor carries a $5,000 prize.

A native of Estonia, Taagepera joined the UC Irvine faculty in 1970 following a shift from his initial career as a physicist. He is the author of more than 100 research articles ranging in topic from nuclear physics, arms races and corruption, to population growth and linguistic studies.  He is the founding dean of the School of Social Sciences at Tartu University in Estonia and served for two years as the president of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies.  

Although he officially retired from UCI in 1994, he has continued to be an active member of the faculty. He teaches courses each year for the political science department and serves as a mentor to both undergraduate and graduate students. He is a regular at department faculty meetings and provides assistance with academic personnel case preparations. At 80+ years of age, he still either bikes or walks to his office on campus almost every day.

In 2008, he was awarded the Johan Skytte Prize for his analysis of the function of electoral systems in representative democracy, an honor considered one of the highest in the field of political science. He donated the $75,000 prize money to the University of Tartu to open a new line of research into the scientific study of the social sciences. In 2013, he was named UCI’s 2013 Outstanding Emeritus.

He currently splits his time as an emeritus professor at both UC Irvine and the University of Tartu.    

Joining Taagepera as an award recipient is Norman Anderson, psychology professor emeritus at UC San Diego. The two bring the total number of Panunzio award recipients to 33 since its founding in 1983. Taagepera is the seventh recipient from UC Irvine which ties with UCLA as having the most award recipients of any UC campus.