Simon Schwartzman is an Associate Researcher at the Instituto de Estudos de Política Econômica/ Casa das Garças in Rio de Janeiro, and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. He studied sociology and political science at the Federal University of Minas Gerais and the Latin American School of Social Sciences (FLACSO, Chile), and holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. He was professor of Political Science and scientific director of the Research Center on Higher Education at USP between 1990 and 1994, and President of the Brazilian National Statistical Office (IBGE) between 1994 and 1998. He is the author of, among others, A Via Democrática: Como o Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social Ocorre no Brasil (Elsevier, 2014); Brasil: A Nova Agenda Social (with Edmar Bacha, Editores). Rio de Janeiro, LTC, 2011; and Políticas educacionais e coesão social : uma agenda latino-americana (with Cristian Cox), Rio de Janeiro, Elsevier; São Paulo: iFHC, 2009.