Best of CASE District I Award
 

Institution: Boston College

Title of entry: The Odds Father

About this entry: Father Richard McGowan has taken as his research subject something that—depending on how you look at it—is either a little surprising or totally fitting for a Catholic priest: the study of vice. Our profile explores his decades of work in economics and the policy-making around vice, whether it be cigarette smoking, gambling, or alcohol. “Father Sin,” as he’s sometimes affectionately known, may have chosen an unlikely research specialty for a man of the cloth, but McGowan has become a nationally recognized expert, regularly being quoted in some of the country’s biggest publications. However counterintuitive the whole thing may seem, McGowan believes that it’s vitally important to study our coarser pursuits if the ultimate goal is to benefit society.