Our very own Principal Assessment Scientist Dr. Antony Kunnan has received the prestigious 2023 Cambridge/ILTA Distinguished Achievement Award! This honor is a fitting recognition of Antony’s achievements and his incredible contributions to the field.
Starting at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1991, Antony’s academic career took off when he won the Jacqueline Ross TOEFL Dissertation Award for his groundbreaking research. His dissertation, which delved into "Test-taker characteristics and test performance: A structural modeling approach," laid the foundation for his illustrious career.
Since then, Antony has held academic positions at prestigious institutions around the world, and has published 11 books and over 80 articles or book chapters. His research spans a wide range of topics, from validity and structural equation modeling to ethics, fairness, and policy in assessment.
Antony’s editorial work has also been instrumental in shaping the field of language assessment. In 2004, he founded Language Assessment Quarterly, a publication that quickly rose to prominence and broadened the scope of language assessment research. Antony continues to contribute to the field through his editorial roles in various publications, including The Journal of Asia TEFL and the Routledge book series New Perspectives in Language Assessment.
But his contributions go beyond his scholarship and editorial endeavors! Antony played a pivotal role in establishing the Asian Association for Language Assessment (AALA), benefiting practitioners and researchers in the Asian region. AALA has grown into a vibrant and sustainable regional organization, thanks to Antony's passionate efforts.
Notably, Antony’s commitment to the field extends to his leadership roles within ILTA and his chairing of three LTRC conferences, which have enriched the language assessment community. And late last year, Antony helped organize the Duolingo English Test’s first language assessment research conference in Hong Kong!
We can’t wait to see Antony be presented with this Distinguished Achievement Award at LTRC in Innsbruck this July! It's a well-deserved honor for an individual who has dedicated his career to advancing language assessment and making a lasting impact. Many of Antony's colleagues from the DET research team will be joining him at the conference, where they will present their groundbreaking work, as well as celebrate Antony’s achievements. We look forward to seeing Antony and our team shine on the international stage!