The Cattell Early Career Research Award is named for Raymond B. Cattell, a founder of SMEP. This award is an early-career award given annually by the Society to a young researcher who has made outstanding contributions to multivariate experimental psychology and who shows promise of continued work of a very high quality. The recipient need not be a member of SMEP. Criteria for the award are as follows: (1) outstanding contribution to multivariate experimental psychology; (2) age 40 or younger, or 10 years or less post-Ph.D.; (3) a minimum of one publication in a refereed journal.

Nominations are solicited annually from members of the Society, and members then vote among the nominees to select a winner. The winner of the Cattell Early Career Research Award is invited to the annual SMEP meeting to present an address and is also given a $1,200 honorarium and $900 for travel expenses.

Past recipients of the Cattell Award:

2009 Nathan R. Kuncel, University of Minnesota
2008 Kristopher J. Preacher University of Kansas
2007 Gitta H. Lubke University of Notre Dame
2006 Jeremy Biesanz University of British Columbia
2005 Albert Maydeu-Olivares University of Barcelona
2004 Daniel Bauer University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2003 Deniz Ones University of Minnesota
2002 Kehai Yuan University of Notre Dame
2001 Patrick Curran University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2000 Steve Boker University of Notre Dame
1999 Gerard Saucier University of Oregon
1998 Steven Reise UCLA
1997 Niels Waller University of California Davis
1996 Oliver John University of California Berkeley
1995 --No award--
1994 Michael Neale Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics
1993 Roger Millsap Baruch College, CUNY (Now at Arizona State University)
1992 Keith Widaman University of California Riverside
1991 Linda Collins University of Southern California (Now at Pennsylvania State University)
1990 Scott Maxwell University of Notre Dame
1989 Wayne deSarbo
1988 Robert Cudeck University of Minnesota
1987 Jack McArdle University of Virginia
1986 James Steiger University of British Columbia
1985 --No award--
1984 --No award--
1983 --No award--
1982 Robert Sternberg Yale University
1981 Larry Hubert now at University of Illinois
1980 Gene Glass
1979 --No award--
1978 Patricia Cohen
1977 Myron Wish
1976 Ralph Hakstian
1975 Paul Baltes
1974 Nancy Hirschberg
1973 John Horn
1972 Peter Bentler & John Nessleroade