Paul Harris has had a tremendous influence on the development of the discipline of developmental psychology: Already in the seventies of the last century Paul Harris initiated research of what he called "the child as a psychologist". In particular, his advanced experimental work on the child’s insight into emotion inspired many researchers all over the world. His further experiments on the development of imagination changed the theoretical explanations of the young child’s cognitive development and Harris’ contributions to the literature on "the child's theory of mind" substantially influenced and motivated many young and not so young scholars. He has published more than 200 papers in the most prestigious journals and six books (edited or co-edited) which have been translated in several languages. Paul Harris did the major part of his work in England where he was born, especially as Professor of experimental Psychology at Oxford University. Currently, Paul Harris is Victor S. Thomas Professor of Education, Harvard School of Education, at Harvard University.
The Award Committee 2009 consisted of Christiane Spiel (Vienna, President of the ESDP, Chair of the Committee) Maria José Rodrigo (La Laguna, President-elect of ESDP), Willem Koops (Utrecht, Past President of ESDP), Çiğdem Kağıtçıbaşı (Istanbul, 2007 winner of the Preyer Award), and Françoise Alsaker (Bern). All committee members and the ESDP council unanimously voted for Paul Harris acknowledging his outstanding contributions to developmental psychology.
The William Thierry Preyer Award for Excellence in Research on Human Development will be given to a European psychologist or a group of European psychologists – who is/are recognized internationally for an original and substantial contribution to a better understanding of human development and its contexts, as demonstrated by first-rate publications in scholarly journals, based on empirical research into the antecedents, processes and outcomes of human development-in-context.
The William Thierry Preyer Award was donated to the European Society for Developmental Psychology (ESDP) by the President of the 2007 European Congress on Developmental Psychology and the Rector of the Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany. According to an agreement with ESDP, the university will support this Award with a donation for the next three congresses. ESDP will take care for its continuation. William Thierry Preyer (1841-1897), born in England, was the Chair of Physiology at the University of Jena, Germany. His vision was inspired by Charles Darwin, and his main works have importance till today – "Spezielle Physiologie des Embryos" and "Die Seele des Kindes" (The Mind of the Child). Both books lead the foundation in their respective scientific disciplines, developmental physiology and developmental psychology, and seen from modern interdisciplinary views on human development, Preyer is a major forerunner of rigorous research on human development, based on observation and experimentation. Details of the application procedure can be found under the topic "Awards".