Eric S. Maskin, a former MIT economics professor and a current member of the visiting committee for the Department of Economics, is one of three winners of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.
Maskin was a member of the MIT economics faculty from 1977 to 1984.
Now a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, Maskin will share the $1.5 million Nobel prize with fellow economists Leonid Hurwicz of the University of Minnesota and Roger B. Myerson of the University of Chicago.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel to the trio for having laid the foundations of mechanism design, which provides tools for distinguishing situations in which markets work well from those in which they do not and for characterizing the optimal institution for any given set of conditions.
Jean Tirole, visiting professor of economics, has been awarded the prestigious 2007 Gold Medal by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France's national center for scientific research.
Tirole (Ph.D. 1981) works on industrial organization, game theory, banking and finance, and economics and psychology. He is scientific director of the Institut d'économie Industrielle, University of Social Sciences, in Toulouse, and was a professor of economics at MIT from 1984 to 1991.
The MIT student group SaveTFP won the Outstanding Youth Organization award as part of the Prevention Leaders honors given by the City of Cambridge Department of Health and Human Services and Cambridge Prevention Coalition, a community-based coalition linking substance abuse prevention to a range of health promotion initiatives. The awards recognize individuals and organizations for their outstanding contributions to the prevention of alcohol abuse and drug use in Cambridge.
SaveTFP members work to reducing stress and facilitating student social activities while increasing health awareness at MIT. In the nomination submitted on behalf of SaveTFP, student members were praised for their efforts to reduce stress and high-risk health behaviors at MIT by providing creative outlets of expression and social opportunities for students such as the Love Your Beaver T-shirt campaign, Spooky Skate, the Tipbook and the Lost and Found web site. The nominations committee said they were impressed by the group's innovative new program called eatTFP, providing pizza and Gatorade to parties across campus during the late night hours. This program provides students with an excellent model for low risk drinking and responsible party hosting.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 17, 2007 (download PDF).
