Nuffield Fellow Receives Two Early Career Awards
Zachary Parolin, Professorial Fellow at Nuffield College, has been announced as the winner of the 2026 William Julius Wilson Early Career Award for “a scholar who has made major contributions early in his/her career” from the Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility section of the American Sociological Association. Zachary also received an Honorable Mention for the 2026 Henrik Enderlein Prize for a “European researcher under the age of forty, whose work is considered to have made an outstanding contribution in her or his field.”
Zachary said:
"I am honoured to receive these two recognitions, which reflect the contributions of many collaborators and mentors over recent years. The awards add further motivation for our research team at Oxford to continue studying how public policy shapes poverty, inequality, and social mobility."
Zachary Parolin is a Professorial Fellow at Nuffield College and a Professor of Social Policy, Inequality, and Opportunity at the University of Oxford, where he also directs the Economics, Inequality, and Opportunity Programme at INET Oxford.
His research combines innovative data infrastructures with policy-relevant analysis, shaping debates on poverty measurement, intergenerational mobility, labour market inequality, and welfare state reform across Europe and the United States. His work has informed the European Commission’s Anti-Poverty Strategy and Minimum Wage Directive, as well as major policy discussions in the United States, including the expansion of child benefits.
The William Julius Wilson Early Career Award is presented annually by the Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Section of the American Sociological Association. Named in honour of the distinguished sociologist William Julius Wilson, whose research transformed the study of poverty, inequality, and opportunity, the award recognises a scholar who has made major contributions to these fields within the first decade of their career.
The jury of the 2026 Henrik Enderlein Prize, which commemorates the late President of the Hertie School, Henrik Enderlein, a passionate advocate of European integration, recognised Zachary Parolin for his outstanding contributions to the understanding of poverty, inequality and social mobility. It was presented in a joint ceremony hosted by the German Federal Foreign Office, in cooperation with the Hertie School, Sciences Po, and the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.