Paul F. Lazarsfeld (1901–1976) was a professor of sociology and the founder and director of the Bureau of Applied Social Research at Columbia University. He was one of the pioneering figures in the development of empirical sociology and social research.
Bernard Berelson (1912–1979) was the head of the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, the director of applied social research and a professor of sociology at Columbia University, and the president of the Population Council. With Lazarsfeld, he was a coauthor of Voting: A Study of Opinion Formation in a Presidential Campaign (1954).
Hazel Gaudet (1908–1975) was a social scientist who worked on the Radio Research Project at Princeton University, where she coauthored The Invasion from Mars (1940) with Lazarsfeld, before joining the Bureau of Applied Social Research. The American Political Science Association gives the Hazel Gaudet Erskine Political Psychology Career Achievement Award to honor remarkable people in the field of political psychology.