Here at Cochrane we are delighted to hear that Professor Julian Higgins has received the 2019 Extraordinary Service Award at the Society for Research Synthesis Methodology 2019 Annual Meeting.

The Extraordinary Service Award (also called the Shadish Award) is named for Professor William Shadish and recognizes an individual who has made extraordinary service contribution to the Society for Research Synthesis Methodology. Julian was a founding trustee and is a past President of the Society for Research Synthesis Methodology (2005-2006).

The impact of Julian’s work in the field is massive. He is involved in a wide range of systematic review methods research, including assessing and adjusting for bias in primary studies, meta-epidemiological studies, meta-analysis methods including Bayesian approaches, network meta-analysis and analysing individual participant data.

In Cochrane, Julian also has a long-standing history, contributing to the development of methods that are integral to the Reviews Cochrane produces. A Co-Convenor of the Cochrane Bias Methods Group,  he has made major contributions to bias assessment in Cochrane Reviews, developing Risk of Bias (RoB) 1 and RoB 2 tool. He is currently a member of the MECIR coordinating group, Senior Methods Advisor at Cochrane and sits on its Editorial Board, Scientific Committee, and Methods Executive. He has also co-edited the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions since 2003 (Version 6 of the Handbook launches in October 2019).

Congratulations to Julian on this well deserved award!