Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile: Open call for the 2021 Abdón Cifuentes Award for the contribution to the development of Chile


Until Monday, May 31, you can apply for this award, which has been awarded annually for eight years, and which seeks to recognize those who perform teaching work and who with their academic career have achieved a positive and direct impact on society.

A recognition to those who have oriented their research and teaching at the service of the country and who, through their academic work, have achieved a positive and direct impact on society, becoming a contribution to the development of public policies. That is the objective of the Abdón Cifuentes award, created in 2013 and coordinated by the UC Center for Public Policy .

In its history, the award has been given to eight professors from the university: Joaquín Montero from the Faculty of Medicine ; Bonifacio Fernández from the Faculty of Engineering ; Alejandro Aravena from the School of Architecture ; José Luis Cea from the Faculty of Law ; Jorge Manzi from the School of Psychology ; María Elena Santibáñez from the Faculty of Law; Paula Bedregal from the Faculty of Medicine; and Francisco Gallego, from the Institute of Economics.

The Award is part of one of the axes of the 2020-2025 Development Plan that establishes the public commitment of the university as a priority and a transversal mission.

Who can apply?
Any professor who has a working day of 22 hours or more and has been at UC for at least two years can apply for another academic, or himself / herself, between Friday, May 14 and Monday, May 31, 2021, irrevocably. The award is individual and is awarded annually. The winner is announced at the Sacred Heart Day ceremony – which will take place on June 11 this year – and will receive $ 2,000,000 as a bonus.

What is required to apply?
In order to apply , a letter addressed to the Pro-rector Guillermo Marshall is required, stating the desire to be included in the list of candidates for the Abdón Cifuentes Prize 2021 and attaching a brief updated curriculum that contains the information pertinent to the award. Then, you have to send this information to [email protected]

To know the details about the recognition criteria, you can review the bases by clicking here.

The recognized academic in 2020
Delivered during the 2020 Sacred Heart Day celebration , last year’s recognition went to Professor Francisco Gallego , a business engineer and master’s degree in Economics from UC; Ph.D. in Economics from MIT; and associate professor at the UC Faculty of Economics and Administration, where he joined in 2006.

“I am very, very excited and surprised. Simply thank the university for this recognition and some colleagues who nominated me (I discovered ex-post, I did not know I was a candidate …) for this beautiful news in these hard times for our country and the world ” , said Gallego after know the news.

The academic leads an important work in the research center J-PAL Latin America and the Caribbean , where as scientific director he must check that the evaluations are with the best standards to be published in the most important journals.


He was also very active in public discussion and with his expertise he worked in numerous commissions and tables throughout different governments . In the last time, he was coordinator of the technical table for reduction of working hours and was also part of the panel of experts that worked and delivered inputs to the Executive to design the Emergency Family Income.