Political Science

Michael Tomz

Interim Director, Institute for Research in the Social Sciences
Michael  Tomz

Michael Tomz is the William Bennett Munro Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Center on Global Poverty and Development, the Landreth Family University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, and the Director of the Center for American Democracy at IRiSS.

Tomz has published in the fields of international relations, American politics, comparative politics, and statistical methods. He is the author of Reputation and International Cooperation: Sovereign Debt across Three Centuries and numerous articles in political science and economics journals.

Tomz received the International Studies Association’s Karl Deutsch Award, given to a scholar who, within 10 years of earning a Ph.D., has made the most significant contribution to the study of international relations. He has also won the Giovanni Sartori Award for the best book developing or applying qualitative methods; the Jack L. Walker Award for the best article on Political Organizations and Parties; the best paper award from the APSA section on Elections, Public Opinion and Voting Behavior; the best paper award from the APSA section on Experimental Research; and the Okidata Best Research Software Award. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation.

Tomz has received numerous teaching awards, including the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Cox Medal for Excellence in Fostering Undergraduate Research. In 2017 he received Stanford’s highest teaching honor, the Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching. He founded and continues to direct the Summer Research College program for undergraduates in political science.

Tomz holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University; a master’s degree from the University of Oxford, where he was a Marshall Scholar; and an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University. He has been a visiting scholar at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the Hoover Institution, the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, and the International Monetary Fund.

Interim Director, Institute for Research in the Social Sciences
2022–present
Director, Center for American Democracy
2019–present
Faculty Co-Director, Laboratory for the Study of American Values (aka "Survey Lab")
2011–present

Co-founded and co-directed with Paul Sniderman.

Stanford Center for American Democracy
2019 Faculty Fellowship
Speaker, Summer Institute in Political Psychology
2005–2016

See the chronological listing of SIPP lectures for Tomz's contributions.

The Democratic Peace
2011 Faculty Fellowship