Prof Richard M. Walker honoured with H. George Frederickson Award for Career Contributions to Public Management Research
Prof Richard M. Walker, Head and Chair Professor of the Department of Government and International Affairs and Director of the 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 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.