Tobias won the Political Studies Association (PSA) Dissertation Prize for his DPhil dissertation ‘The Political Economy of Universal Healthcare: A Global Comparative Perspective’. The prize recognises “the best dissertation in the field of comparative politics” and is one of the leading early career prizes in political science.

He has also been awarded the Walter Korpi International Social Policy Prize for his paper ‘Spaces of Equality: A Global Analysis of Universal Healthcare and Social Trust from 2000–2020’, presented at the Research Committee on Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy (RC19) conference in 2024. Tobias was honoured for his contribution to advancing understanding of the relationship between healthcare systems and social trust.

In its official statement, the award committee highlighted the importance and originality of Tobias’ work. The committee noted that the paper “has the potential to bridge the gap between health policy and health systems literature and welfare state scholarship”, and described it as an innovative contribution addressing key gaps in research on the association between universal welfare states and trust.

Tobias’ DPhil dissertation examines why countries expand healthcare in universal or segmented ways, and what these choices mean for inequality, redistribution, and social trust. It develops a new conceptualisation and global measurement of healthcare universalism, drawing on comparative data spanning more than 200 countries and three decades. It also investigates the political conditions under which governments pursue inclusive rather than segmented reforms.

Tobias completed his DPhil at ODID in December 2025 under the supervision of Professor Diego Sánchez-Ancochea and Professor David Rueda (Department of Politics and International Relations). He is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Technical University of Munich and remains affiliated with ODID as a Research Associate.