Former UW Political Science Prof. Michael Don Ward, 72, passed away peacefully and gracefully on Friday, July 9th.
Prof. Ward was a renowned political scientist who leaves behind an enormous legacy. After a post-doctorate with Harold Guetzkow, he had a research appointment at Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin. On return to the States, Mike added teaching to his active research agenda, engaging students at the University of Colorado, the University of Washington, Pierre Mendès-France University, and finally Duke University. He published 12 books and more than 100 academic articles on an enormous range of topics, including international conflict, trade, and political geography. He was at the forefront of a statistical revolution in political science, where he made a number of seminal contributions, including a better understanding of dependencies in data. He was a leading proponent of forecasting in the social sciences, and in 2018 he received the Career Achievement Award from the Society for Political Methodology.