Prof Richard M. Walker, Head and Chair Professor of the Department of Government and International Affairs and Director of Lingnan University Institute for Advanced Study (LUIAS), has received the prestigious 2025 H. George Frederickson Award for Career Contributions to Public Management Research from the Public Management Research Association (PMRA) in recognition of his valuable contributions to intellectual development in the field. The award is presented annually to only one scholar worldwide, and Prof Walker will receive the honour officially at the Public Management Research Conference (PMRC) in Seoul, South Korea, in late June.
Prof S. Joe Qin, President and Wai Kee Kau Chair Professor of Data Science, congratulated Prof Walker on the honour. “We are proud to make this announcement to the wider academic and professional community, which fully demonstrates Lingnan’s strength in the international academic community. Prof Walker is a world-leading scholar in public management, whose influential research and leadership have earned extensive international recognition. He is also one of the distinguished scholars recruited through the Lingnan-60 Global Talent Recruitment, reflecting the University’s drive to the highest academic standards. I believe that under Prof Walker’s leadership, LUIAS will further strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration and elevate Lingnan’s research impact on the global academic stage.”
Prof Walker responded, “It is an absolute delight to receive the award. The significance of this honour lies in the fact that it is nominated and selected by a group of peer academics, and recognition from peers is one of the biggest accolades a scholar can receive. I am deeply grateful to Lingnan University for providing an exceptional platform that enables me to deepen my academic engagement. This award marks a milestone in my professional journey and reinforces my commitment to advancing impactful interdisciplinary research that addresses real-world challenges. Moving forward, I will continue collaborating with world-renowned scholars to integrate humanistic perspectives into science and technology.”
Prof Walker is known for his research in citizen-government relations and effective government management. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (UK) in 2020. Since 2020, he has been one of Stanford's Top 2% most cited scientists and ranked first across China in the field of Political Science by Research.com. In the latest Top 2% classification, Prof Walker holds the top position in Hong Kong in his academic field of Political Science and Public Administration. He is also a recipient of the Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme 2024/25, and has served on the editorial boards of several public administration journals. He is currently an Associate Editor for the Public Management Review.
Prof Walker has a visionary and innovative approach and founded the Governance and Bureaucracy Lab (GOVBUR Lab) at Lingnan’s Department of Government and International Affairs, which bridges public administration and political science to examine current challenges in citizen-government relations concerning citizen identity, artificial intelligence (AI), and effective governance. He also applies a computational social sciences technique of topic modelling to the discipline of public administration. Unlike traditional literature review approaches, topic modelling is inductive and analyses academic texts to seek prevalent themes, offering a fresh and clear-cut interpretation of public administration.
Established in 2005, the H. George Fredrickson Award has been conferred upon 16 recipients to date.
