Robert Axelrod has been named the recipient of the 2011 Charles E. Merriam Award, an award given by the American Political Science Association to honor outstanding career achievements.
Axelrod is the Walgreen Professor for the Study of Human Understanding, a professor of of public policy at the Ford School, and a professor of political science at the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. He is the author of "The Evolution of Cooperation," which has been translated into eleven languages, as well as several other books, including "The Complexity of Cooperation," and "Harnessing Complexity," co-authored with Michael D. Cohen. He was a MacArthur Prize fellow from 1987 to 1992 and was the president of the American Political Science Association from 2006 to 2007. His research on cooperation has been cited in over four thousand articles and five hundred books.
The American Political Science Association presents the Charles E. Merriam award to one person every two years, in recognition of "significant contribution to the art of government through the application of social science research."