Helen Schneider Dinerman (December 25, 1920 – August 14, 1974) was an American sociologist and

public opinion Public opinion is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to a society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them. Etymology The term "public opinion" was derived from the French ', which was first use ...

researcher.

Biography

Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1920, Dinerman received her education at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. Later, she worked as a researcher in the

United States Office of War Information The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...

and trained at the Bureau for Applied Social Research, the first academic research centre dedicated to

survey research In research of human subjects, a survey is a list of questions aimed for extracting specific data from a particular group of people. Surveys may be conducted by phone, mail, via the internet, and also at street corners or in malls. Surveys are us ...

, founded by

Paul Lazarsfeld Paul Felix Lazarsfeld (February 13, 1901August 30, 1976) was an Austrian-American sociologist. The founder of Columbia University's Bureau of Applied Social Research, he exerted influence over the techniques and the organization of social resea ...

in 1944. She became employed with the International Research Associates in 1948, and became Chairman of the firm's Executive Committee in 1968. Dinerman died in Emanuel Hospital in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

on August 14, 1974, while on holiday with her daughter.

Legacy

In 1981, the

World Association for Public Opinion Research The World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR) is an international professional association of researchers in the field of survey research. It is a member organization of the International Science Council. History Established in 194 ...

established the Helen Dinerman Award – "in memory of Helen Dinerman's scientific achievements over three decades of public opinion research" – to recognize individuals who have made "significant contributions to survey research methodology".

Selected publications

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References

1920 births 1974 deaths American sociologists Columbia University alumni Hunter College alumni People of the United States Office of War Information American women sociologists 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American scientists 20th-century American non-fiction writers {{US-sociologist-stub