Faculty Achievements and Awards

Myerson Is Chicago’s 81st Nobelist

Economist and game theory expert Roger B. Myerson was awarded the 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, shared with Leonid Hurwicz and Eric Maskin. They were cited for their work in laying the foundations of mechanism design theory, which shows how resources may be allocated efficiently in markets or political systems despite incomplete information. Hurwicz was a researcher with the Cowles Commission in the early 1950s when it was located at the University of Chicago. Myerson is the Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor in Economics. He joins six other Nobel laureates currently on Chicago’s faculty.

Becker Receives Presidential Medal of Freedom

Gary S. Becker was one of eight to receive the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Becker, University Professor in Economics, Sociology, and the Graduate School of Business, has previously received the National Medal of Science and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He is a pioneer in applying the economic theory of human capital.

German Honors to Two Faculty

Kenneth W. Dam, the Max Pam Professor Emeritus in the Law School, received the first-ever Reimar Lüst Award for International Scholarly and Cultural Exchange from the Alexander von Humboldt and Fritz Thyssen foundations. A leading scholar in domestic and international economic law, Dam was honored for outstanding research and service building cultural and academic relationships with Germany.

Dam and Michael Geyer, the Samuel N. Harper Professor in History and the College, also won 2007 Humboldt Research Awards that will allow them to conduct research projects in collaboration with German colleagues.

Yu Granted Mellon Foundation Emeritus Fellowship

Anthony C. Yu, the Carl Darling Buck Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Divinity School, was awarded an Emeritus Fellowship from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support research and writing on the sixteenth-century masterwork of traditional Chinese fiction The Journey to the West.

Piazzesi Garners Two Economics Honors

Monika Piazzesi, Professor of Finance in the Graduate School of Business, received the Elaine Bennett Research Prize from the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession. A macroeconomist specializing in financial economics and applied time series analysis, she also was honored as the top European economist under the age of forty with the 2005 Bernácer Prize.

Yamamoto Garners Three Awards for Chemistry Creativity

Hisashi Yamamoto, the Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor in Chemistry and the College, received the prestigious 2007 Japan Academy Prize, as well as the 2006 Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Organic Chemistry and a 2007 Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He was honored for career achievements in designing molecules.

Meyer, COBE Team Share Cosmology Prize

Stephan Meyer and the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) team received the $250,000 Gruber Cosmology Prize at the International Astronomical Union’s General Assembly in late 2006. Meyer, Professor in Astronomy & Astrophysics and the College, and Director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, and eighteen colleagues were recognized for their 1992 confirmation that the universe was born in a hot big bang.

Mathematics Research Prize to Eskin

Alex Eskin, Professor in Mathematics, was one of five recipients of the Clay Research Prize, which cited his work in two completely different areas, rational billiards and geometric group theory. The annual award from the Clay Mathematics Institute recognizes major breakthroughs in mathematical research.