At its Biennial Meeting on October 19, 2007, the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) honored M. Kent Jennings, Professor of Political Science, with the Warren E. Miller Award for Meritorious Service to the Social Sciences. The Warren Miller Award, named for ICPSR's co-founder and first executive director, was established in 1993 "to recognize individuals who have had a profound impact on social science research and infrastructure."

Jennings is a past president of the American Political Science Association (1997-98) and the International Society of Political Psychology (1989-90), and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1982. He has received numerous awards and fellowships throughout his career, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and grants from the Ford Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes for Mental Health. In 2004, he received another "Warren E. Miller" prize, this one from the American Political Science Association's section on elections, public opinion, and voting, in recognition of "an outstanding career of intellectual accomplishment and service to the profession." In January 2007, Jennings was listed in the "Political Science 400," a list of scholars whose work has been most frequently cited by other researchers.

ICPSR, established in 1962 as unit within the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, is a membership organization of more than 500 colleges and universities around the world, working together to acquire and preserve social science data, provide open and equitable access to that data, and promote effective data use.

Comments from Dean of Social Sciences Melvin Oliver, Department Chair John Woolley, and Professor Jennings are included in the UCSB publicity release dated October 22, 2007.