UCSB’s Professor Matto Mildenberger co-leads a research project at the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) that has been recognized with the Warren Mitofsky Innovator's Award from the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR).

According to Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, “the AAPOR recognized an innovative statistical methodology that uses national survey data to estimate public opinion ‘at finer grade geographical scales.’ The model — which uses survey data as well as demographic, geographic, and time variables — has helped produce the influential and interactive “Yale Climate Opinion Maps,” which are available online.

“Those maps enable users to explore a trove of data on public opinion at the state, congressional district, metropolitan, and county levels. Last year, the New York Times published the congressional-level maps to help illustrate differences in climate opinion across the nation.
 
“The work of the Yale Program has led to a deeper understanding of public opinion among policymakers, academics, journalists, and the general public,” the AAPOR states in its award. “As the news media continue to adopt new data visualizations in reporting, innovations like the Yale Climate Opinion Maps can help the nation better understand how public opinion varies over time and space.”

Mildenberger has authored a series of research papers over the past several years documenting the distribution of climate and energy opinions at the local level, including nationally, among US partisans, and across Canada (the last paper with Prof. Leah Stokes).
 
The American Association for Public Opinion Research is the leading professional organization of public opinion and survey research professionals in the U.S., with members from academia, media, government, private industry and the nonprofit sector.