James M. Lepkowski Junior Faculty Research Support Award Program
The Michigan Program in Survey and Data Science (MPSDS) proudly launched the James M. Lepkowski Junior Faculty Research Support Award Program in 2025-26 to honor the legacy of its founding director, James M. Lepkowski.
This unique opportunity provides select junior faculty at the Institute for Social Research with dedicated research support for an entire academic year (fall and winter terms) through a master’s-level Research Assistant from MPSDS.
What Award Recipients Receive:
- A dedicated MPSDS Research Assistant (master’s student) assigned for 20 hours per week for one academic year (fall and winter terms) for research activities related, but not limited, to:
- Data collection
- Data acquisition
- Data analysis
- Data management and dissemination
- Publication
- A valuable mentoring opportunity to guide and develop the next generation of survey and data science professionals.
- Any junior faculty at the rank of an assistant professor, a research assistant professor, an assistant research scientist or a research investigator whose primary appointment is at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan
- Whose research requires support in social science methods, data collection or data analysis.
Submit a package to [email protected] with the following:
- CV
- Proposal (no more than 2 pages) with the following sections:
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- a project overview,
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- expected research assistant responsibilities,
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- required as well as desired skills for research assistants,
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- a training/mentoring plan, and
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- a research product that involves selected research assistants and its dissemination plan.
Application due date: August 2, 2026
The faculty award selection will be made by mid-August 2026. Awardees will be involved in choosing their Research Assistant.
Award Winners
Junior Faculty: Dr. Sarah E. Patterson
Research Assistant: Effy Tang
Project: Exploring Care Attitudes and Behaviors Toward Older Adults
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Junior Faculty: Wei Zhao
Research Assistant: Zihan Tong
Project: Advancing Social Genomics Research Through the Panel Study of Income Dynamics
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Junior Faculty: Henning Silber
Research Assistant: Troy Liu
Project: Advancing Survey Science
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Junior Faculty: Lizbeth ‘Libby’ Benson
Research Assistant: Zack Winograd
Project: Enhancing Mobile Health Through Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Contact [email protected] with questions.