Aksel Sundström

Aksel Sundström is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg, leading the Department of Political Science and serving as Director of the Quality of Government (QoG) Institute. He holds visiting appointments at Harvard University (2017–2018) and the University of Oxford (2022). His research focuses on environmental politics, particularly in low-income countries, and political representation with an emphasis on gender and youth inclusion. Sundström leads the ERC-funded project 'Female Leaders and African Droughts (Fem-LEAD)'.

Education: PhD in Political Science (University of Gothenburg, 2015), visiting scholar at the University of Michigan (2015), and studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.

Research highlights include developing the 'Women's Political Empowerment Index' and studying youth underrepresentation in parliaments. Major awards include the ERC Starting Grant (2023) and the First-time Voter Award (2023, shared).

Advising and grants: Supervises multiple PhD students; ERC grant supports Fem-LEAD. Leading QoG's data team, which provides open datasets on governance and societal indicators.

Key contributions include the open-access book Youth without Representation and extensive work on corruption in natural resource management.