Mauricio Olavarría Gambi, who earned his doctorate in public policy from the School of Public Policy in 2002, has received the Oscar Godoy Award for Outstanding Academic Career from the Chilean Association of Political Science. The award was presented in December 2025.
The recognition reflects Olavarría Gambi’s sustained contributions to public policy analysis in Chile, particularly his role in advancing rigorous, empirical approaches to the field. His research has examined poverty and state modernization and, more recently, criminology and criminal recidivism, including fieldwork conducted in prison settings. That work has informed policy discussions around public safety, a central challenge in Chile’s current public agenda.
His nomination was advanced by the association’s Public Policy Group, which cited both the pioneering nature of his early scholarship at a time when public policy analysis was still emerging in Chile and Latin America, and the continued relevance of his current research. Studies of the field have identified Olavarría Gambi as one of the most productive and internationally cited Chilean scholars in public policy analysis.
With this distinction, Olavarría Gambi becomes the second academic to receive the Oscar Godoy Award. The honor reinforces the award’s focus on academic careers marked by rigor, public relevance and sustained contributions to the field of political science and public policy.
