CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Harvard Kennedy School Professor Robert D. Putnam has been awarded the 2026 Thomas Jefferson Medal by the American Philosophical Society, the organization’s highest honor in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. The award recognizes Professor Putnam’s decades of empirical research on social capital, civic engagement, and the health of American democracy. Established by Congress in 1993, the Thomas Jefferson Medal honors individuals whose scholarship has significantly advanced understanding in their fields and informed public life. Previous recipients include Toni Morrison, I.M. Pei, Albert O. Hirschman, and George Kennan.
Putnam is the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and one of the most widely cited social scientists of the past half century, reaching both academic and public audiences. His 2000 book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community — which documented a sweeping decline in civic participation, community ties, and interpersonal trust across American society — fundamentally reshaped how scholars, policymakers, and the public think about democracy and community life. Drawing on data spanning decades, Bowling Alone showed that Americans had become increasingly disconnected from one another, from local institutions, and from civic life — and traced the consequences for politics, governance, public health, and social cohesion. Putnam’s groundbreaking work on the issue of isolation and social media has been cited as a precursor to the burgeoning movement to ban social media and cell phones in schools across the country.
In subsequent work, Putnam continued to probe the forces shaping American civic life. In Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis (2015), he examined the widening gap in opportunity between children from different social backgrounds. In The Upswing: How Americans Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again (2020), he offered both historical perspective and cautious optimism, showing that earlier periods of decline in social cohesion had given way to renewal.
“I’m humbled to be ranked among such distinguished intellectuals,” Putnam said. “Like most of them, it’s been my aspiration not merely to understand the world, but to change it for the better.”
Over the course of his distinguished career, Putnam has served as Dean of Harvard Kennedy School, Director of Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and President of the American Political Science Association. He has been elected to the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the British Academy.
About Harvard Kennedy School
Harvard Kennedy School’s mission is to improve public policy and public leadership so that people can live in societies that are more safe, free, just, and well-governed. Through its research and its programs for students and practitioners, the school addresses major challenges facing the world.