Dear NBER Researchers -
I am writing with five NBER-related news items that I hope will be
of interest.
1. The first issue of the _NBER Reporter_ each year summarizes awards
and recognitions received by NBER-affiliated researchers during the
previous calendar year. If you received an honor in 2014 that you would
like us to include, please send an email to my assistant, Raquel Greene
greener_at_nber.org by Friday, February 13 with "2014 Awards" in the
subject line and a brief description of your award - no more than fifty
words - in the body of the message. Please note that to keep the list
of awards of manageable length, we cannot include honors bestowed by our
researchers' universities, such as named chairs. If you shared your
award with other researchers, please include that information in your
message.
2. Next Monday, February 9, is the deadline for nominating potential
new Faculty Research Fellows and Research Associates. If you have a
candidate to propose, please follow the directions in the email that you
received from Denis Healy on January 21, which included your
personalized link to our web-based nomination tool. If you cannot find
that message, please email Denis at (dhealy_at_nber.org).
3. The detailed schedule for the 2015 Summer Institute, which will take
place between July 6 and July 24, is posted at
http://conference.nber.org/confer/2015/SI2015/SI2015.html
Please note that on Wednesday July 22, Professor Alan Krueger of
Princeton University, a past chair of the President's Council of
Economic Advisers who has also served as Chief Economist at both the
Department of Labor and the Treasury Department, will deliver this
year's Martin Feldstein Lecture. In addition, on Saturday, July 18,
Susan Athey and Guido Imbens, both of Stanford University, will be
presenting a set of methodology lectures on "Machine Learning for
Economists."
4. In addition to his extraordinary contributions to the NBER as
President for nearly three decades, since 2004 Martin Feldstein has
served as Director of the Economics of National Security (ENS) working
group. At the end of 2014, Marty decided to step down from this
position. I hope that you will join me in thanking him for creating
this group to draw attention to the important economic issues that are
associated with national security questions. Going forward, we will
continue to feature a session on national security issues at the Summer
Institute, and Marty has agreed to organize this in the near term. I
have concluded, however, that this is the appropriate time to wind down
the ENS working group as a distinct NBER entity.
5. Another important transition is scheduled for later this year. After
30 years at the helm of the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth
(CRIW), Chuck Hulten has decided to step down from this role. He has
done an extraordinary job in leading this research group, and we are all
grateful to him. The CRIW membership has elected Katharine Abraham of
the University of Maryland, who has served as Commissioner of the Bureau
of Labor Statistics and as a member of the President's Council of
Economic Advisers, to serve as Chuck's successor. I am very grateful to
Katharine for agreeing to take on this important new responsibility.
All best wishes for the spring semester. I look forward to seeing you at
the 2015 Summer Institute if not before.
Jim Poterba
Received on Tue Feb 03 2015 - 16:26:56 EST
