Larry V. Hedges

Larry V. Hedges joined the Northwestern faculty in 2005. He is one of eight Board of Trustees Professors at Northwestern, the university’s most distinguished academic position. He holds appointments in statistics, psychology, and education and social policy. Previously, he was the Stella M. Rowley Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago.

Hedges’ research straddles many fields—in particular those of sociology, psychology, and educational policy. He is best known for his work to develop statistical methods for meta-analysis (a statistical analysis of the results of multiple studies that combines their findings) in the social, medical, and biological sciences. It is a key component of evidence-based social research. Examples of some his recent studies include: understanding the costs of generating systematic reviews, differences between boys and girls in mental test scores, the black-white gap in achievement test scores, and frameworks for international comparative studies on education.

Widely published, he has authored or co-authored numerous journal articles and eight books. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and is a fellow of the American Statistical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Educational Research Association. He is a member of the National Education Sciences Board and was president of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, which he helped found. He was nominated by President Barack Obama to the Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in June 2012. He was recently elected "Statistician of the Year" by the Chicago chapter of the American Statistical Association for 2013–14.