Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Germany) and a degree in Sociology from the University of Chile. Prior to joining the Institute, he was a Full Professor at Universidad Diego Portales (UDP), a Marie-Curie Research Fellow at the University of Sussex and a post-doctoral researcher at the Social Science Research Centre Berlin (WZB) and Nuffield College at Oxford University. He has been a visiting professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, Science Po in Paris, the Free University of Berlin and the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA). His area of expertise is comparative politics, with particular emphasis on Europe and Latin America.

His work focuses on the study of populism in comparative perspective, especially its relationship with the democratic system. He works as an associate researcher at the Center for the Study of Conflict and Social Cohesion (COES), is the principal investigator of the FONDECYT project (2022-2025) entitled "The Populist Radical Right in Chile in Comparative Perspective" and is in charge of the project "The Far-Right in Latin America" funded by the Open Society Foundations (OSF). He is currently Director of the Doctorate in Political Science at UC.