ITHACA, N.Y. -- Francine Blau, the Frances Perkins Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Labor Economics at Cornell University, and five Cornell students were honored by the American Academy of Political and Social Science (AAPSS) as new fellows for 2005 on April 10. The AAPSS designates new fellows each year "to recognize and honor individual social scientists for their distinguished scholarship in the social sciences, sustained efforts to communicate that scholarship to audiences beyond their own discipline and professional activities that promise to continue to promote the progress of the social sciences."

Blau, who was designated as an Eleanor Roosevelt Fellow, was recognized "as an exemplar for all social scientists, both active and nascent."

In addition, graduate students Robb Willer (sociology) and Kirsten Boehner (communication) were elected as graduate fellows, and undergraduate students Shari Tenielle Moseley '05, a sociology major in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Andrew L. Riesenberg '05, a communication major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, were elected as junior fellows. All were cited for "their outstanding grasp of a discipline's theories and methods, as demonstrated through graduate coursework; an enthusiasm for understanding social issues; and the promise of making substantial contributions to the social sciences in the future."

Cornell sociology graduate student and junior fellow Michael Genkin, who was nominated by his undergraduate department at the State University of New York at Albany, won an undergraduate research award for his paper "The Social Psychology of Terrorism: Mechanisms of Group Cohesion in Terrorist Organizations," which was written while he was an undergraduate student.