The Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology are pleased to announce that henceforth the Society's annual Theoretical Innovation Prize will be known as the Daniel M. Wegner Theoretical Innovation Prize. This award is granted annually for a new theoretical contribution to personality and social psychology. The dedication of this award to the memory of Dan Wegner is made possible by a generous donation from Worth Publishers.
Dan Wegner, who passed away in 2013, was recognized with the field’s most prestigious awards for his highly original scholarship and novel theoretical perspective. Dan was a consummate theoretical innovator who prized creative thought. As his long-time colleague and friend, Dan Gilbert, put it, "No one loved a beautiful idea more than Dan Wegner, and no one in our field had more of them. He respected data and admired experimentation, but above all else he valued new ways of thinking about old problems. Were he still with us, we would have a wildly clever name for this prize and an inventive new scheme for awarding it." Naming this award in Dan's memory acknowledges his legacy as one of the field's most influential theoretical innovators.
The award is presented annually at the SPSP Annual Convention.