The selection committee for the John Gaus Award has named renowned Norwegian scholar Johan P. Olsen winner of the 2003 prize. Olsen will deliver the 18th annual John Gaus Lecture on Friday, August 29 at 6:15pm, as part of the APSA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.

Olsen has been one of the most influential researchers in the field of administration and organization theory since the beginning of the 1970s. His books, Rediscovering Institutions: The Organization Bias of Politics (Free Press 1989) and Democratic Governance (Free Press 1995), both with James March, are seminal works. His work with March has resulted in important contributions to concept- and theory-formation in the fields of organization theory and political science, including the “garbage can” model and neoinstitutionalism. Over the span of his career, he has produced nearly 20 books and authored dozens of book chapters and journal articles. His current work investigates institutional dynamics at the European and national level, and the interaction between such processes.

Olsen is co-research director of the Advanced Research on the Europeanization of the Nation State (ARENA) program, a position he has held since 1993. ARENA, a multidisciplinary program based at the University of Oslo, seeks to create and develop research and competence on European matters in Norway—with a special emphasis on the European Union. From 1973 until 1993, he served in the Department of Public Administration and Organizational Theory at the University of Bergen. Currentl,y he is an adjunct professor in the political science department at the University of Oslo and a fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies at Stanford. He is also member of the Royal Danish Academy of Science and the Research Council at the European University Institute in Florence.

APSA is pleased to recognize a scholar whose career has so fittingly met the spirit of the John Gaus Award—to recognize exemplary scholarship in the joint tradition of political science and public administration. Olsen will receive the award at the Association's Award Ceremony on Thursday, August 28 at 8:30pm in Philadelphia.

For more information on this award and to read previous lectures visit APSANet <www.apsanet.org>.