Kim named Omer Clyde and Elizabeth Pharr Aderhold Professor in Research Methodology

Seock-Ho Kim, a professor in the Mary Frances Early College of Education’s Department of Educational Psychology, was recently named the Omer Clyde and Elizabeth Pharr Aderhold Professor in Research Methodology by the Board of Regents.

The professorship is funded by a gift from the family of the late President Aderhold. It will provide Kim with the resources to expand his internationally recognized work in educational measurement with a specific focus on item response theory.

“I am truly honored to be selected as the Aderhold distinguished professor. I knew several great professors who received such an award earlier. All of them are wonderful scholars as I know them in person.” Kim said. “I will try my best to be a better scholar in all aspects of teaching, research, and service. I consider this award as spurs in my research on item response theory. I thank all colleagues for their support and help throughout my tenure at this great university.”

Kim is associate editor of Frontiers in Psychology and has served as the review board member of various professional journals including Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science, School Psychology Quarterly, Journal of Educational Measurement, and Educational and Psychological Measurement.

He joined the UGA faculty in 1995 as an assistant professor in the College’s Department of Educational Psychology and served as president of the Korean American Educational Researchers Association from 2010–11. In 2012, he was part of a team of education researchers who received a national award for the application of educational measurement technology to solve a specific problem in educational measurement.

Kim co-authored two books, “Item Response Theory: Parameter Estimation Techniques (2nd ed.)” and “The Basics of Item Response Theory Using R.” He is the author of numerous publications in educational measurement, psychometrics, and applied statistics.