Michael P. McDonald (born 1967) is an American political scientist. He is a Professor of Political Science at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its Ga ...

where he focuses on the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

elections.

Early life and education

McDonald earned his Bachelor of Science degree in economics from the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

and his PhD from the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

Career

Upon completing his postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard-MIT Data Center, McDonald accepted an assistant professor position at

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

in 1999. He stayed there for one year before transferring to the

University of Illinois Springfield The University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) is a public university in Springfield, Illinois. The university was established in 1969 as Sangamon State University by the Illinois General Assembly and became a part of the University of Illinois s ...

's department of political science. In 2004, McDonald, Jeff Gill, and

Micah Altman Micah Altman (born August 31, 1967) is an American social scientist who conducts research in social science informatics. Since 2012, he has worked as the head research scientist in the MIT Libraries, first as director of the Program on Informati ...

co-authored ''Numerical Issues in Statistical Computing for the Social Scientist,'' a book in the field of computational statistics which demonstrated that the

reproducibility Reproducibility, also known as replicability and repeatability, is a major principle underpinning the scientific method. For the findings of a study to be reproducible means that results obtained by an experiment or an observational study or in ...

of statistical analyses used in social science are threatened by errors and limitations in the statistical computations and software used to estimate them. Based on this analysis, Altman, McDonald and Gill developed methods to detect issues in social science statistical models and provide more replicable and reliable estimates. McDonald continued to collaborate with Altman throughout his career and in 2011, they founded the Public Mapping Project, which developed DistrictBuilder, an open-source software redistricting application designed to provide online mapping tools. It received one of

Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...

's Best Policy Innovation Award for 2011, the 2012 Data Used for Social Impact award, and the Brown Democracy Medal from

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

. He is the director of the United States Election Project, which documents voter turnout statistics in US elections.

Selected publications

The following is a list of selected publications *''The myth of the vanishing voter'' (2001) *''Numerical Issues in Statistical Computing for the Social Scientist'' (2004) *''The Marketplace of Democracy: Electoral Competition and American Politics'' (2006)

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:McDonald, Michael P. Living people California Institute of Technology alumni University of California, San Diego alumni American political scientists University of Florida faculty Vanderbilt University faculty University of Illinois at Springfield faculty George Mason University faculty 1967 births