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Robert M. La Follette
School of Public Affairs
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Madison, WI 53706

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Last updated:
August 18, 2011

Students: Piore Prize for Best Paper in Science and Public Policy

A bequest to the La Follette School of Public Affairs established the Piore Prize for Best Paper in Science and Public Policy. Named for Emanuel R. Piore and Nora Kahn Piore, the prize was awarded for the first time in 2009 to recognize the best student paper in the area of science and public policy.

Piore Prize Recipients

2011: Bickey Rimal, class of 2011, for “Identifying the Key Determinants of Residential Electricity Consumption,” co-authored with Julie Reber, a student at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.

2010: Scott Williams, class of 2010, and Karen Walsh, class of 2011, for “Reducing Black Carbon in the South: Is the Clean Development Mechanism the Right Governance Strategy?”

2009: Allison Quatrini, class of 2009, and Evan Johnson, class of 2010, for “Developing Selection Criteria for Successful Chinese CDMs: The Prospects of Chinese Clean Development Mechanisms for Global Environmental Quality.”

Dr. Emanuel R. Piore was a research physicist who marshaled federal dollars for scientific research and helped IBM develop a new generation of digital computers. With bachelor’s and doctorate degrees in physics from the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Piore joined IBM in 1956 as director of research. He was a vice president and chief scientist at the company from 1965 to 1972. Just after World War II, Dr. Piore became the first civilian to head the Office of Naval Research, and eventually became the office's chief scientist and helped establish the National Science Foundation. When he retired, the Navy gave him the Distinguished Civilian Service Award, its highest civilian award.

After his retirement from IBM, the Lithuanian-born Dr. Piore was an adjunct professor at Rockefeller University, a member of the New York City Board of Higher Education and the chairman of the New York City Hall of Science, of which he was the founding president. Dr. Piore served on the Science Advisory Committees of presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. He served as a board member of the American Institute of Physics and the National Research Council.

Nora Kahn Piore was a New York economist and health policy expert. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa in economics in 1933 from the University of Wisconsin, where she received an M.A. in economics a year later. During her long career, Mrs. Piore was a union organizer and supervisor of education for union members; a research economist for a Senate subcommittee dealing with health legislation; a special economic assistant in the New York City Health Department; and head of a joint project with Hunter College that analyzed the economics of health initiatives in President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society program.

Dr. and Mrs. Piore passed away in 2000.

Students: Piore Prize for Best Paper in Science and Public Policy

Piore Prize Recipients

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