The Zetterberg Prize goes to Per Engzell
This year’s recipient is Per Engzell, Associate Professor in Sociology, University College London and Stockholm University. Photo: Fisher Studio Ltd.
Per Engzell has been awarded the 2024 Zetterberg Prize in Sociology for his research on social stratification.
Each year, the Department of Sociology at Uppsala University awards the international Hans L. Zetterberg Prize to a “young researcher, Swedish or international, whose scholarly work, preferably by productively combining theory and practice, has shifted the forefront of research”. The prize amount is SEK 100,000.
This year’s recipient is Per Engzell, Associate Professor in Sociology, University College London and Stockholm University. The prize will be awarded on 14 November 2024.
Award statement:
Per Engzell has published his theoretically driven and methodologically rigours studies in top international journals in sociology, such as American Sociological Review, but also more broadly and he is strongly committed to open science. A number of his contributions speak to issues raised in Hans L Zetterberg’s research on social mobility, bringing new insights from analyses of historical data as well as more contemporary studies of income mobility.
Per Engzell’s research not only meets the highest scientific standards; it is also designed to produce insights and outcomes that are important for society at large. His most cited publication is on the learning losses following the school closures during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This piece was publish in PNAS and followed up by a review in Nature Human Behaviour illustrating the cross-disciplinary relevance of his research.
In the spirit Hans Zetterberg, Per Engzell is also an inspiring science communicator and public intellectual, which contributes to extend his impact, beyond the scientific community, to the general public and to policy makers.
Anders Berndt
The Hans L. Zetterberg Prize in Sociology
Hans L. Zetterberg (1927–2014) studied sociology in Uppsala and was one of Torgny Segerstedt’s first students in the new field, which was first established in the country in 1947. He was active for many years at the Department of Sociology in Uppsala (licentiate degree 1952).
The prize is made possible through a donation from Hans L. Zetterberg’s family: his wife Karin Busch Zetterberg, son Martin C. Zetterberg and daughter Anna D. Zetterberg. The donation also includes furnishings and books in the Hans L. Zetterberg Room at the Department of Sociology at Uppsala University.