Christopher Achen, Roger Williams Straus Professor of Social Sciences and Professor of Politics at Princeton University, and a faculty associate at the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, has been named a 2017 recipient of Princeton's Graduate Mentoring Award.

The McGraw Center for Teaching & Learning and the Graduate School sponsor this annual award to honor Princeton faculty members who are exemplary in supporting the development of their graduate students as teachers, scholars and professionals.

Graduate students nominate their mentors, emphasizing how the professor is an exceptional adviser and mentor and the ways in which he or she has furthered graduate students’ teaching, scholarly or professional goals. One faculty member in each academic division (humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering) is selected to receive this honor.

Achen will be officially recognized at the Graduate School's Hooding Ceremony on June 5. His research interests are empirical democratic theory, American and comparative politics, and political methodology, and he is the author or co-author of six books, including “Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government” (2016).