By Jenna Somers
Camilla Benbow and David Lubinski have won the Dunnette Prize from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), for their scholarship on talent identification and talent development in intellectually precocious youth. Benbow is Patricia and Rodes Hart Dean of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University Peabody College. Lubinski is Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Psychology and Human Development.
Benbow and Lubinski co-direct the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY), a longitudinal study of over 5,000 intellectually talented participants, initially identified before age 13. Now in its 54th year, the study examines the unique needs of intellectually precocious youth and their developmental trajectories over the lifespan.
Benbow and Lubinski will officially receive the Dunnette Prize at the SIOP Annual Conference April 29 to May 2, in New Orleans, where they will also give an invited address. Awardees are presented with a glass sculpture and a $50,000 cash prize.
"Receiving the Dunnette Prize is a profound honor that recognizes the importance of understanding and nurturing intellectually talented youth. Our five decades of work with SMPY has been driven by a passion to unlock the potential of gifted students and support their unique developmental trajectories. We are deeply grateful to SIOP for recognizing our commitment to illuminating the pathways of intellectually precocious youth," Benbow and Lubinski said.
About the Prize
The Dunnette Prize honors a "living individual or team who has made programmatic, significant, and lasting contributions to the understanding of the role of individual differences in assessing, predicting, and explaining human behavior and performance." The award is named for Marvin Dunnette, a pioneering scholar in industrial and organizational psychology at the University of Minnesota.
About Camilla Benbow and David Lubinski
Benbow began her academic career at Johns Hopkins University following completion of her doctorate in education at the institution in 1981. Lubinski began his academic career as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign after completing his Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Minnesota in 1987. They served as faculty at Iowa State University before joining Vanderbilt in 1998. Both are fellows of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science, as well as members of the American Educational Research Association, where Benbow is also a fellow.
In 2024, Benbow and Lubinski were ranked No. 1 and 2, respectively, among scientists in the field of mathematical giftedness by Gifted Child Quarterly (2024). They also were awarded Paper of the Year from Gifted Child Quarterly (2022) and the Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Intelligence from the International Society for Intelligence Research (2018). They have each twice won the American Psychological Association's George A. Miller Award for Outstanding Article in General Psychology (for four independent contributions).
In 2019, Benbow received the International Award for Research from the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children. Earlier in her career, she received the David Imig Award from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (2010), the President's Award from the National Association for Gifted Children (2009), and the Distinguished Alumna Award from Johns Hopkins University (2008). In 2004, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the MENSA Education and Research Foundation.
Lubinski received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Mensa Foundation (2015). He was honored with the AERA Pathbreaker Award for Research on Giftedness, Creativity, and Talent (2013), the Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Association for Gifted Children (2006), and the American Psychological Association's Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology (Applied Research/Psychometrics; 1996).
Both scholars have served in several leadership positions within their field. Benbow served on the National Science Board, as vice-chair of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, and on the board of the American Psychological Foundation. She is a past trustee of Fisk University. Lubinski is the former president and board member of the International Society for Intelligence Research and served on the Board of Trustees for the Society for Multivariate Experimental Psychology.
