Professor Matt Qvortrup is an internationally recognized comparative political scientist. An expert on referendums, he has also pioneered the use of social neuroscience. Awarded the Oxford University Press Law Prize 2012 and the recipient of the PSA Prize for best article in 2013, his books include The Comparative Politics of Referendums (Forthcoming with Edward Elgar 2025), The Political Brain (CEU Press 2024), I Want to Break Free: A Practical Guide to Making a New Country (Manchester University Press, 2022) and Referendums and Ethnic Conflict (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2nd Edition 2021). The author of more than 40 refereed articles, he has published in, inter alia, Journal of Democracy, International Journal of Constitutional Law, Government and Opposition, and Legal Theory. In addition to his academic work, Matt is a frequent presenter of BBC's Analysis Programme, and has written op-eds for, among others, The LA Times, the Daily Mail, the Guardian, The Times, and Newsweek.

Matt was Editor-in-Chief of European Political Science Review 2016-2023. He has also served as a chief advisor to the United Nations on democracy, consultant for the House of Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (ministry of Foreign Affairs), and he was member of the US State Department's special envoy team in Sudan.