Reinhard Heinisch is professor of comparative Austrian politics at the University of Salzburg and has headed the department of political science since 2010. He received his academic training in the USA (MA: Virginia Tech, '87), where he completed his PhD (Michigan State U/1994) and then taught at the University of Pittsburgh from 1994 to 2009, last as professor of political science. Heinisch's research focuses on the rise of the radical right, populism, democracy, voting, and survey research. He is the author of 40 research articles and more than 50 other scholarly publications including 10 books. His research appeared in journals such as Journal of Common Market Studies, Party Politics, West European Politics, Democratization, Representation, Comparative European Politics, Politics and Governance, and many others. His book publications include Populism Proporz Pariah, Austria turns Right (2003), Understanding Populist Party Organization: The Radical Right in Western Europe (Palgrave 2016); Political Populism: A Handbook (Nomos 2021). A monograph on Austria's populist Islam Politics is under contract with Rutgers University Press. He has funded his research with various project grants including Marie Curie Research Fellowship by the European Union (2010), European Union Horizon 2020 to study populism and counterstrategies, and the Austrian Research Fund (2022) to research COVID-conspiracy theories. He is the recipient of Austrian National Science Price by the Austrian parliament (2017), past president of the Austrian Political Science Association, and served as the head of Working Group on Democracy by the Austrian Research Association. His consulting work has included the US Department of State and various Austrian government departments. He continues to be a faculty affiliate of the University of Pittsburgh and has been a regular visiting scholar with the Renmin University of China in Beijing. Reinhard is both an Austrian and US citizen. In Austria he is best known for being a frequent commentator in the national media about US politics. Reinhard is a Fellow of Salzburg Global Seminar.