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DENNIS M. SIMON (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and a founding member of the John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies.  His teaching and research interests include the American Presidency, presidential-congressional relations, public opinion, electoral behavior, and research methodology.  His research has appeared in such leading journals as the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Politics.  He is the recipient of SMU’s 2001-2002 President's Associate Award for teaching and scholarship, the Pi Sigma Alpha award given by the Southern Political Science Association for his study of national forces in state legislative elections, and the Miriam Irish award given by the Southern Political Science Association for his study (with Barbara Palmer) of the emergence of women in U.S. electoral politics.

His current research agenda includes two projects. The first, entitled The Perilous Experiment, is an historical and quantitative study that traces the evolution of popular and legislative leadership in the American Presidency. His second project, “Southerners in the United States House of Representatives,” is a history of electoral and ideological change in the South since 1930 and is supported by a grant awarded by the Dirksen Congressional Center.

Within the University, he has served as a member of the Governing Board of the Tower Center, Chair of the SMU Athletic Council, and faculty representative to the SMU Board of Trustees Committee on Athletics.  He regularly teaches in the summer programs for talented and gifted student sponsored by the Gifted Students Institute at SMU and, with Calvin C. Jillson, designed the Tower Institute, a scholarship program for gifted and talented students who wish to pursue the study of politics and policy.  Outside of the University, he serves as a consultant to the Advanced Placement Program and regularly conducts teaching workshops for high school instructors throughout the state.