Chappell Lawson is an associate professor of political science at MIT. He directed the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) program for ten years and directs the newly created Policy Lab (PL@CIS). Lawson's recent work has focused on Mexican politics, the effect of candidates' physical appearance on their electoral success, political leadership, and homeland security policy.

From September 2009 through February 2011, Lawson was on leave from MIT as a political appointee in the Obama Administration, serving as executive director and senior advisor to the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Before joining the MIT faculty, he served briefly as a director of Inter-American Affairs on the National Security Council staff during the Clinton Administration.

Lawson was a national fellow at The Hoover Institution, Stanford University (2002-2003,  and a visiting research fellow at the Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies at the University of California, San Diego (1998-99). He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1999 and his AB from Princeton (the Woodrow Wilson School) in 1989.