For years, theorists have used strategic interaction to aid their understanding of how countries act toward each other.
But empiricists did not include the idea, because they had no way of statistically modelling it. Signorino changed that.
Signorino was first recognized by the wider academic community in the summer of 1996 when he presented a poster at a conference on political methodology.
Renee M. Smith, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Rochester, said that she noticed Signorino's poster because it included two projects: one was on game theory and the other was a statistical analysis.
After his presentation, the political science department at Rochester invited Signorino to give a job talk.
Stanley said that the talk Signorino gave to the department was "one of the best that any of us had seen in the last 10 to 15 years."
According to Smith, Signorino fielded questions in a very confident and mature way, and did not "fall into the trap of using statistical jargon."
Signorino was courted by several other universities, including the University of Michigan and Yale.
Signorino said he chose Rochester in part because he thought "it would provide a better environment for me professionally as a member of junior faculty.