Honorary degree for Professor Eric Maskin

Professor Eric Maskin, an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, has this week been awarded a University of Cambridge honorary degree at a ceremony at Senate House.

Formerly a postdoctoral fellow at Jesus College, Professor Maskin received the degree of Doctor of Science for his contributions to game theory, contract theory, and social choice theory.

Currently the Adams University Professor at Harvard University, in 2007 he won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics with Leonid Hurwicz and Roger Myerson for laying the foundations of mechanism design theory –the field in economics and game theory that takes an engineering approach to designing economic mechanisms or incentives. “Other economists study what happens when certain rules have been established in some business or other,” his citation reads; “he engineers the rules which will produce the desired outcomes.”

The University Chancellor awarded Honorary Degrees to eight distinguished individuals in recognition of their achievements in academia, philanthropy and public service.