Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky is the Institute Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Chomsky is credited with the creation of the theory of generative grammar, often considered to be the most significant contribution to the field of theoretical linguistics in the 20th century. He is also credited with the establishment of the so-called Chomsky hierarchy, a classification of formal languages in terms of their generative power.

Date - November 14, 2004

Jeffrey Sachs

Jeffrey Sachs is an American economist known for his work as an economic advisor to governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia, and Africa. Currently a professor at Columbia University, Mr. Sachs is also known for his work with international agencies on problems of poverty reduction, debt cancellation, and disease control.especially HIV/AIDS, for the developing world.

Since 2002, Professor Sachs has been Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, and a professor in Columbia's Department of Economics, School of International and Public Afffairs and Department of Health Policy and Management. He is also Director of the United Nations Millennium Project and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Previously, Professor Sachs has been an advisor to the IMF, the World Bank, the OECD, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Development Programme.

Daniel Kahneman

Daniel Kahneman is a key pioneer and theorist of behavioral finance, which integrates economics and cognitive science to explain seemingly irrational risk management behavior in human beings. He is famous for work done in collaboration with Amos Tversky and others in establishing a cognitive basis for common human errors using heuristics and in developing prospect theory.

Currently a faculty member at Princeton University and a fellow at Hebrew University, Professor Kahneman is the winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in prospect theory, despite being a research psychologist and not an economist.

Event - "Behavioral Economics/Finance"
Date - April 15, 2005

Mark W. Olson

Mark Olson has served as administrative governor of the Federal Reserve Board since August 2002. He currently serves as chairman of the Board's Committee on Consumer and Community Affairs and also serves on the Committees on Supervisory and Regulatory Affairs and Federal Reserve Bank Affairs. Mr. Olson is also the Federal Reserve representative on the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation (NeighborWorks), which was created by Congress to assist in revitalizing urban residential neighborhoods.

Before becoming a member of the Board, Mr. Olson served as Staff Director of the Securities Subcommittee of the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, U.S. Senate (2000-2001). From 1988 to 1999, Mr. Olson was National Director of the Ernest & Young's Regulatory Consulting Practice for the financial services industry. In addition, Mr. Olson was selected to join a 1991-92 Treasury Department effort to assist Eastern European bankers in adapting to a free-market economy.

Date - October 4, 2004

Stephen S. Roach

Stephen S. Roach is Managing Director and Chief Economist of Morgan Stanley, a leading global financial services firm. Before joining Morgan Stanley in 1982, Mr. Roach was Vice President for Economic Analysis for the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company in New York. He also served on the research staff of the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. from 1972-79 where he supervised the preparation of the official Federal Reserve projections of the U.S. economy. Prior to that, Mr. Roach was a research fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Mr. Roach is widely recognized as one of Wall Street's most influential economists.

William Easterly

William Easterly is Professor of Economics at New York University, joint with Africa House, and Co-Director of NYU's Development Research Institute. He is also a non-resident Fellow of the Center for Global Development in Washington DC. William Easterly received his Ph.D. in Economics at MIT. He spent sixteen years as a Research Economist at the World Bank. He is the author numerous economic books and publications. His work has been discussed in media outlets like National Public Radio, the BBC, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, the Economist, the New Yorker, Forbes, Business Week, the Financial Times, and the Christian Science Monitor. Professor Easterly's areas of expertise are the determinants of long-run economic growth and the effectiveness of foreign aid. He has worked in most areas of the developing world, most heavily in Africa, Latin America, and Russia. Professor Easterly is an associate editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Economic Growth, and of the Journal of Development Economics. He was born in West Virginia and grew up in Bowling Green, Ohio.