Professor Richard M Walker is currently Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS), and Chair Professor of Public Management in the Department of Public and International Affairs of City University of Hong Kong (CityU). He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, the United Kingdom.
Professor Walker is Director of the Laboratory for Public Management and Policy of CityU. The laboratory focuses on questions at the intersection of management and policy, and seeks to understand how the behaviour of public service organisations can achieve positive policy and societal outcomes. He is also Co-Director of the Centre for Public Affairs and Law, jointly established by CLASS and the School of Law of CityU. The Centre conducts interdisciplinary research in the social science and law disciplines on public affairs topics, and devises policy and lawbased solutions to policy challenges to enhance diversity, resilience and reconciliation.
Professor Walker was listed among the top 2% of the world’s most highly cited scientists, according to metrics compiled by Stanford University in 2020 and 2021. He received the "President’s Award" at CityU in 2016 and the "Louis Brownlow Award" bestowed by The American Society for Public Administration in 2020. Professor Walker is the Past President of the Public Management Research Association. His research has been supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Research Grants Council and the Public Policy Research Funding Scheme in Hong Kong, the Economic and Social Research Council in the United Kingdom, and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange in Taiwan. He received best paper awards from Public Management Review (2014), the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (2015), and Public Administration Review (2019).