University of Chicago Professors Win Nobel Prize
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business added to an amazing and long-running legacy in 2013 when two of the school’s professors shared the Nobel Prize in economics. Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hansen won the award for their working in developing new ways to spot trends in the prices of stocks, bonds, homes and other assets.
Fama and Hansen’s research has been extremely impactful and both have left a resounding impact the finance theory, with one example being the rise of low-fee, index mutual funds that are part of every retirement plan.
Fama, 74, and Hansen, 60, both gave credit to The University of Chicago for hiring a very well respected group of illustrious faculty members in the economics department to put around them to promote “an intellectually rigorous yet collegial culture.”
“I’ve said this many times before, but whatever I am owes at least two-thirds of it, maybe three-quarters, maybe 90 percent to the University of Chicago,” said Fama. “The interaction you get from your colleagues is so influential in building your work that you cannot underestimate its impact.”
The University of Chicago now boasts 89 Nobel winners, including 28 Nobels in economics, formally known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Including Fama and Hansen, there are six Nobel laureates currently on the economics faculty. The others are Becker, Roger Myerson, James Heckman and Robert Lucas Jr.
