FROM THE ARCHIVES: Waterman Award to Lawrence H. Summers (April 10, 1987)
In celebration of COSSA’s 40th anniversary, we are diving into the decades of Washington Update archives to share articles from years past that resonate with today’s news.
A young Harvard economist is the first social or behavioral scientist to win the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Alan T. Waterman Award. That award, established in 1975 to honor the first director of the Foundation, is given annually to an American citizen or permanent resident who is 35 years of age or younger or has received the Ph.D. degree within the past five years. The recipient receives a medal and up to $500,000 in grants for three years of scientific research at an institution of his or her choice. The presentation of the award to Summers will be made on May 20 at a formal dinner held at the Department of State in Washington.
Summers is widely regarded as one of the outstanding economists of his generation. He has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at Harvard University, where he received the Ph.D. in 1982 and became a full professor of economics in 1983. He has served on the staff of the Council of Economic Advisers, has been a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a member of the Brookings Panel on Economic Activity, is currently serving on the NSF economics advisory panel, and edits the Quarterly Journal of Economics. In 1986, he received the Presidential Young Investigator award, administered by NSF, which provides five years of research support[…]