APS Committees
STANDING COMMITTEES
Awards & Recognitions
Each award or recognition committee is made up of approximately 5 to 7 members. Members are asked to serve a 3-year term, with some exceptions to ensure staggered terms. The chair of each committee is appointed year-by-year from among continuing committee members.
James S. Jackson Lifetime Achievement Award Committee
The APS James S. Jackson Lifetime Achievement Award for Transformative Scholarship honors APS Members for their lifetime of outstanding psychological research that advances understanding of historically disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups and/or understanding of the psychological and societal benefits of racial/ethnic diversity, equity, and inclusion. The type of scholarship honored by the award is broad in scope and research methodology, and encompasses research on historically disadvantaged racial/ethnic groups residing anywhere in the world. Recipients must be APS members, and their contributions may be in any field or area of psychological science. Nominations for the award are due in October, and the committee’s work generally takes place over the following four months.
University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Glasgow
University of Delaware
William James Fellow Award Committee
The William James Fellow Award honors APS members for their lifetime of significant intellectual contributions to the basic science of psychology. Recipients must be APS members recognized internationally for their outstanding contributions to scientific psychology. Nominations for the award are due in October, and the committee’s work generally takes place over the following four months.
Vanderbilt University
The University of Chicago
Columbia University
University of Warwick
Tufts University
James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award Committee
The James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award recognizes APS members for their outstanding lifetime contributions to the area of applied psychological research. Recipients must be APS members whose research addresses a critical problem in society at large. Nominations for the award are due in October, and the committee’s work generally takes place over the following four months.
University of Oxford
University of Michigan
Temple University
Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School
University of Amsterdam
APS Mentor Award Committee
The APS Mentor Award recognizes those who have significantly fostered the careers of others, honoring APS members who masterfully help students and others find their own voice and discover their own research and career goals. Nominations for the award are due in October, and the committee’s work generally takes place over the following four months.
Harvard University
Barnard College of Columbia University
University of California, Berkeley
University of Granada
Appalachian State University
Tufts University
University of California, Riverside
Janet Taylor Spence Award Committee
The APS Janet Taylor Spence Award was established to recognize transformative early career contributions to psychological science. Award winners should reflect the best of the many new and cutting-edge ideas coming out of our most creative and promising investigators who, together, embody the future of psychological science. Recipients of the Spence Award automatically receive APS Fellow status. Nominations for the award are due in October, and the committee’s work generally takes place over the following four months.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Waterloo
Brown University
Utrecht University
Leiden University
Princeton University
Fellows Committee
Fellow status is awarded to APS members who have made sustained outstanding contributions to the science of psychology in the areas of research, teaching, service, and/or application. Fellow status is typically awarded for one’s scientific contributions, but may also be awarded for exceptional contributions to the field through the development of research opportunities and settings. Researchers who have an outstanding record of mentoring students from diverse backgrounds, working with research participants from diverse backgrounds, and making outstanding contributions to diversity and inclusion within the field of psychological science qualify for consideration. Candidates will be considered after 10 years of postdoctoral contribution. Nominations for the award are due in October, and the committee’s work generally takes place over the following four months.
University of California, Berkeley
University of Granada
Peking University
New York University
University of Kansas
University of Waikato
Graduate School of Social Sciences, Hitotsubashi University
Temple University
Georgia Tech
University of California, Berkeley
Rising Stars Committee
The Rising Star designation recognizes outstanding psychological scientists in the earliest stages of their post-PhD research career whose innovative work has already advanced the field and signals great potential for their continued contributions. Nominations for the award are due in October, and the committee’s work generally takes place over the following four months.
Boston College
University of California, Davis
Columbia University
University of Georgia
Nanyang Technological University – Singapore
University of Kent
The EdUHK
University of South Alabama
New York University
University of Wisconsin, Madison
University of Rochester
Old Dominion University
Annual Convention Program Committee
The APS Convention Program Committee comprises approximately 10 members representing major fields of study within psychological science. Members are asked to serve a 3-year term, with some exceptions to ensure staggered terms. The chair is appointed year-by-year from among continuing committee members. The Program Committee develops the scientific program of the APS Annual Convention. The committee invites presentations from leading researchers and academics and accepts submissions for consideration for inclusion in the program. Proposals are submitted and reviewed through an online Call for Submissions. Committee membership is balanced among various areas of research. This is a year-round committee, with work for the following year’s convention usually beginning each May at the convention itself.
University of California, Berkeley
Bowling Green State University
Indiana University
University of Toronto, St George
University of Washington
University of California, Los Angeles
Kyoto University
University College, London
Vanderbilt University
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Election Committee
APS elections are held in the first part of each year for a president elect and two member-at-large seats. The Election Committee assembles slates that are balanced among various areas of research and interest within psychological science and strives to ensure that the pool of candidates represents diversity along multiple dimensions. The bulk of the committee’s work takes place from January to April each year.
The University of Texas at Austin
Rice University
Nagoya University
University of Cambridge
University of California, Davis
University of Toronto
Finance Committee
The Finance Committee consists of the APS President, President-Elect, Immediate Past-President, and Treasurer, who serves as chair. The duties of the Committee include reviewing the proposed annual budget and financial reports prepared by the Treasurer and advising the Board of Directors on the management of the association’s assets.
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
Rice University
University of Southern California
Membership Committee
The Membership Committee advises the APS board and staff on topics including APS’s suite of member benefits, member onboarding and engagement initiatives, categories of membership, dues pricing, and tactics for ensuring that APS membership represents the breadth of the science, including across various geographies and fields of research, as well as across various sizes of institutions and underrepresented groups. Committee members also work to help recruit new members and engage existing members in APS’s work. The committee meets quarterly and is in touch as needed throughout the year.
University of Amsterdam
University of Western Australia
University of Nevada Las Vegas
Pontificia Universidade Catolica, Rio Grande do Sul
The EdUHK
Harvard Medical School
Elmhurst College
Claremont McKenna College
Binghamton University, The State University of New York
University of California, Riverside
Publications Committee
APS publishes six journals: Psychological Science, Current Directions in Psychological Science, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Clinical Psychological Science, and Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science.
The Publications Committee performs such activities as assigned by the APS Board of Directors, ranging from overseeing searches for journal editors to evaluating proposals for new journals to making recommendations on future directions in the area of publications. The chair is the first point of escalation for questions of publication ethics and policy that rise above routine issues handled by the journal editors.
Emory University
Humboldt University
National Central University
Association for Psychological Science
Ad-Hoc Committees
The following committees support various programs and initiatives. Terms are generally 3 years, with some exceptions to stagger rotations. Chairs are typically invited year-by-year from among continuing members.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee
The Association for Psychological Science is committed to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in all areas of our leadership, membership, activities, staff, and field. Including members of underrepresented groups in meaningful ways is a vital part of this commitment. As the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee pursues short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals to promote diversity and inclusion in all areas of APS, it identifies strategies to achieve those goals and explores how APS can contribute to increasing diversity of the field more broadly.
Indiana University
Alfred University
University of Minnesota
New York University
Tufts University
University of Amsterdam
University of Washington
Binghamton University, The State University of New York
Committee on Global Engagement
The APS Ad-Hoc Committee on Global Engagement is charged with engaging individuals from across the APS membership in discussions that contribute to the acquisition of data and insights that inform APS efforts to cultivate and catalyze a global scientific community dedicated to fostering the development and furtherance of psychological science around the world. The Ad-Hoc Committee shall endeavor to pursue its work primarily through virtual meetings and discussions but is encouraged to consider hosting in-person meetings for attendees of the APS Annual Convention and ICPS. Read the full charge here.
Stanford Graduate School of Business
University of Glasgow
National University of Colombia
Pacific Lutheran University
Pontificia Universidade Catolica, Rio Grande do Sul
Brandeis University
Tokyo Woman’s Christian University
University of Melbourne
University of Haifa
University of Buea
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
University of Sussex
University of Melbourne
Teaching Fund Committee
The APS Fund for Teaching and Public Understanding of Psychological Science was established in 2004 with an endowment from The David and Carol Myers Foundation. Under the auspices of the APS Board of Directors, the Teaching Fund Committee plans and implements initiatives to enhance the teaching of psychological science. The Teaching Fund Small Grant Program provides seed support for projects aimed at strengthening the teaching enterprise in psychological science in the United States and abroad. The Translating Research to Improve the Teaching of Psychological Science Program provides grants to support the development of evidence-demonstrated interventions that apply well-established principles to improve the teaching of psychological science. Also supported by the fund is the annual APS-David Myers Lecture on the Science and Craft of Teaching Psychological Science, delivered at the APS Convention, as well as APS activities, such as internships, related to the public understanding of psychological science. Applications for the Teaching Fund Small Grant Program are reviewed by the committee in March-April and October-November each year.
Furman University
Hood College
University of Santo Tomas
University of North Texas
William K. and Katherine W. Estes Fund Committee
The William K. & Katherine W. Estes Fund was established to extend the legacy of one of the most influential psychological scientists of the past century, William K. Estes. Jointly overseen by APS and the Psychonomic Society, the Estes Fund supports a variety of activities aimed at strengthening methodology in mathematical, quantitative, and experimental psychology and related areas. Most notably, the Fund awards grants to support workshops and summer schools that train psychological scientists in mathematical and computational modeling methods. Initial proposals are reviewed by the committee in September and October, and full proposals are generally reviewed in December and January.
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Syracuse University
Utrecht University
Purdue University
National University of Singapore
