Vernon Smith

Vernon L. Smith, George L. Argyros Chair in Finance and Economics and President, International Foundation for Research in Experimental economics.He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, 2002, for having established laboratory experiments as a tool in empiricalceconomic analysis, especially in the study of alternative market mechanisms; has held appointments at Purdue University, Stanford, Brown, University of Massachusetts, USC, California Institute of Technology, U. of Arizona, U. of Alaska-Anchorage, George Mason University, and Chapman University. Professor Smith received his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from California Institute of Technology (1949), his masters in Economics from the University of Kansas (1951), and his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard (1955). He has authored or co-authored over 300 articles and books on capital theory, finance, natural resource economics, experimental economics, the housing origins of economic instability, 1920-2014, and in 2018, Humanomics, Cambridge press, with Bart Wilson.Professor Smith is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Purdue University awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Management degree in 1989. He was elected member, National Academy of Science, 1995. In 1996 he received Cal Tech’s Distinguished Alumni Award. He became Kansan of the year (Topeka Gazette) in 2002, received a Distinguished Alumni award from the University of Kansas in 2011 and in 2014 an Honorary Doctor of Science degree. He has served on numerous editorial and editorial advisory boards, and as president of several national economic associations. He has served as a consultant on the liberalization of electric power in Australia and New Zealand, and has participated in numerous private and public discussions of energy privatization and liberalization in the United States and around the world. In 1997 he served as a Blue Ribbon Panel Member, North American Electric Reliability Council.