Robert Walker is Professor at the Institute of Social Management/School of Sociology, Beijing Normal University under China's 'High Level Foreign Talents' programme. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Oxford where he is also Emeritus Fellow of Green Templeton College. He was formerly Professor of Social Policy at the University Nottingham and before that Professor of Social Policy Research, Loughborough University where he was Director of the Centre for Research in Social Policy. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Academy of Social Sciences and was awarded an MBE by HM Queen Elizabeth II in 2012 for his services to social policy research. In 2020 he was nominated for a Friends of China award by the Chinese Ministry of Education. His research interests are eclectic but include poverty, social security, children’s studies, media presentation, policy evaluation and research methodology. He has published 22 books, over 170 academic articles and contributions and 55 independently published research reports and served in a expert capacity to 11 countries and many international organisations.