Congratulations to Yuxing (Nemo) Chen for being awarded both the Frank Grace Award for Outstanding Honors Thesis and the Marshall Sahlins Social Science Award!

The Frank Grace Award for Outstanding Honors Thesis recognizes the single best honors thesis in political science submitted each year. The Marshall Sahlins Social Science Award is among those recognizing overall excellence or demonstrated potential for excellence of an Honors student within the social sciences.

Nemo Chen's thesis, titled "Bureaucratic Interests: Does Fiscal Decentralization Impede Efficient Governance," was completed under the supervision of advisors Professors Mark Dincecco and Jonathan Hanson. The full thesis can be found in our Honors Thesis Archive.

Nemo Chen is a final-semester senior majoring in Political Science. His research explores how bureaucratic reforms and fiscal institutions shape state capacity and development, with a focus on administrative downsizing and fiscal federalism. He is a Stamps Scholars Research Fellow working with Professor Mark Dincecco. Nemo plans to begin his doctoral studies in Political Science in Fall 2026. After graduation, he will spend 9 months working on development projects in Africa. Before deciding to pursue an academic career, he founded a startup that was successfully acquired.