Sir John Kevin Curtice (born 10 December 1953) is a British political scientist who is currently professor of politics at the

University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde ( gd, Oilthigh Shrath Chluaidh) is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal chart ...

and senior research fellow at the National Centre for Social Research. He is particularly interested in electoral behaviour and researching political and social attitudes. He took a keen interest in the debate about Scottish independence.

Early life

Curtice was born on 10 December 1953. He grew up in St Austell and was educated at

Truro School Truro School is a coeducational independent day and boarding school located in the city of Truro, Cornwall, England. It is the largest coeducational independent school in Cornwall with over 1050 pupils from pre-prep to sixth form. It is a membe ...

and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he read politics, philosophy and economics, and later transferred to Nuffield College as a postgraduate.

Commitments and positions

He serves as president of the

British Polling Council The British Polling Council (BPC) is an association of market research companies whose opinion polls are regularly published or broadcast in media in the United Kingdom. The BPC was established in 2004, twelve years after the perceived failure ...

, vice-chair of the Economic and Social Data Service's Advisory Committee and is a member of the editorial board of the '' Journal of Elections'', the Executive Committee of the British Politics Section of the American Political Science Association, and the Policy Advisory Committee of the

Institute for Public Policy Research The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is a progressive think tank based in London. It was founded in 1988 and is an independent registered charity. IPPR has offices in Newcastle upon Tyne, Manchester, and Edinburgh. Funding comes from ...

. He was formerly a Fellow at the

Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) in Amsterdam, Netherlands, is an independent research institute in the field of the humanities and social and behavioural sciences founded in 1970. The instit ...

and a member of the steering committee of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems Project. Curtice has frequently appeared on the BBC during broadcast coverage of general elections in the United Kingdom, giving his accurate predictions of the results in 2005, 2010, 2015 and

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

. He has picked up a strong following on

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

, and was mentioned frequently on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

during the 2017 election, though he shuns this attention, adding "I've no wish to become a media celebrity".

Awards and honours

Curtice was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1992 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2004. In 2014 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy, the United Kingdom's

national academy A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with State (polity), state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, most frequently in the sciences but ...

for the humanities and social sciences. Curtice was appointed a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are th ...

in the

2018 New Year Honours The 2018 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

for services to the Social Sciences and Politics.

Personal life

Curtice is married to a

medical sociologist Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practices ...

with one daughter.

Books

* ''British Social Attitudes: the 24th report'' (ed. with A. Park, K. Thomson, M. Phillips, M. Johnson and E. Clery), London: Sage, 2008 * ''British Social Attitudes: the 25th report'' (ed. with A. Park, K. Thomson, M. Phillips, and E. Clery), London: Sage, 2009 * ''Has Devolution Worked?'' (ed. with B. Seyd), Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009 * ''Revolution or Evolution?: The 2007 Scottish Elections'', (with D. McCrone, N. McEwen, M. Marsh and R.Ormston), Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009 * ''British Social Attitudes: the 26th report'' (ed. with A. Park, K. Thomson, M Phillips, and E. Clery), London: Sage, 2010. * ''British Social Attitudes: the 27th report'' (ed. with A. Park, E. Clery and C. Bryson), London: Sage, 2010

References

External links

Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends (CREST)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curtice, John 1953 births Living people People educated at Truro School Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford British political scientists Psephologists Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of the British Academy Alumni of Nuffield College, Oxford Knights Bachelor