Dr. John Horack speaks about Pierre Agostini prize winner Janet Box-Steffensmeier during Thursday’s committee meeting. Credit: Michael Goulet | Campus Photo Editor
Professor Janet Box-Steffensmeier was awarded the second annual Pierre Agostini Prize at the university’s Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday.?
The Agostini Prize is the university’s most prestigious honor for artistic and scholarly achievement, awarded to one faculty member every year. The prize includes $50,000, which is split evenly between cash and a research budget, according to the award’s website?
Box-Steffensmeier is a distinguished university professor and Vernal Riffe professor of political science at Ohio State. Her work involves advancing political methodology and the tools researchers use to study politics, giving researchers the ability to examine why political events occur, when they happen and how long the effects persist, according to the award website.?
“Many years ago, a faculty member suggested to me to become a professor, and it was an opportunity I hadn’t envisioned for myself growing up in rural Iowa,” Box-Steffensmeier said. “But looking back, that conversation really changed my life. It taught me a lesson that stayed with me throughout my career; that a conversation with one person can help people see what’s possible, and that’s what motivates me and why I love doing what I do and why I’ve loved working so much with the students.”
The award was established to honor professor Agostini’s research achievements, which led him to win the Nobel Prize in physics in 2023. The first prize was awarded to professor Liang-Shih Fan in 2025.?
“This prize is designed to reflect the university’s commitment to recognizing world-class faculty,” said John Horack, the vice president for research at the university, who presented the award. “Their work is the first link in the value chain of what the future will look like.”
Winners of the award are nominated by the college in which they teach by the dean or other representative of that college. Nominations are reviewed and ranked by a faculty committee, then the final decision for the winner is made by the vice president of Ohio State’s Enterprise for Research, Innovation and Knowledge, according to the award’s website.
“Throughout [Box-Steffensmeier’s] career and continuing to this very moment, her work has moved the Ohio State University forward in incredible ways; understanding and transforming how we understand political and social behavior, innovative methodologies that have become foundational tools across more than just the political science discipline and influencing many generations of scholars around the world,” Horack said.
Box-Steffensmeier gave a speech at the meeting, highlighting her experience with the university’s political science department.
“I’ve been able to study politics, institutions and methodology, and more recently, some of the AI tools – which some of the wonderful students who are here that are majoring in data analytics, computer science and all of these wonderful opportunities we have here at Ohio State – that help me answer new and unique questions in the social sciences,” Box-Steffensmeier said.
President Ravi Bellamkonda also spoke about Box-Steffensmeier at the meeting, highlighting her time with the university.
“Ohio State is what it is, because of amazing scholars like Jan, and she sets the standard for what we aspire to have more of,” Bellamkonda said.
Agostini is a professor emeritus– an honorary, lifetime title for a retired professor to show respect for their distinguished career– of physics at Ohio State. He taught at Ohio State between 2005-2018.
Agostini worked with Louis DiMauro, another Ohio State physics professor, in the Agostini-DiMauro Ultra-fast Atomic Physics Research Group.
According to an Ohio State website, DiMauro said that Agostini’s work allowed scientists to capture the speed and movement of electrons, which can move at 43 miles per second.?
Agostini and his colleagues created techniques that use pulses of light that last an attosecond – one quintillionth of a second – to capture electrons. This breakthrough made it possible for people to measure and study the rapid movements of electrons within atoms and molecules.
