Outstanding Achievement Award Recipient
College of Liberal Arts, June 26, 2024
Andreu Mas-Colell earned his doctorate in economics from the University of Minnesota in 1972. Following graduation, Mas-Colell first accepted a professorship at the University of California, Berkeley and later moved to Harvard. His research pioneered the development of mathematical economics, encompassing groundbreaking work on general equilibrium theory, social choice theory, and game theory. He has also been an effective editor, including editing Econometrica, the top journal in economic theory, and he is the author of the graduate microeconomics text that is standard in most every PhD program in the English-speaking world. In the early 1990s, Mas-Colell returned to his native Spain with the intent of developing high-quality schools of economics there, given that economics scholars (including him) were seeking education in other countries. These steps involved taking a leading position in government and building new higher education institutions, including to help create the Barcelona School of Economics (BSE), which is now ranked as having one of the top three economics departments in Europe; and the Barcelona School of Science and Technology (BIST). Throughout his career, Mas-Colell has mentored numerous graduate students, many of whom have become distinguished economists themselves. He continues to be engaged with the University of Minnesota as a board member for the Heller-Hurwicz Economics Institute, which has been a key driver of success for the economics department.
Biographies are as-of time of award presentation.