Berlin, 15 October 2019 – Esther Duflo, a Professor at MIT and Falling Walls Speaker in 2017 won the Nobel Prize in economics together with her husband, Abhijit Banerjee (MIT), and Michael Kremer (Harvard University).
The Falling Walls Foundation congratulates Esther Duflo on being awarded the Economics Nobel Prize for her highly innovative approach to reducing poverty all over the world. She is the youngest person and the second woman to win the prize. In a call with CNN, she stated that “the essence of our research is to make sure that the fight against poverty is based on scientific evidence.”
A celebrated MIT economist who constantly questions and contests general wisdom in her research, Duflo is regarded as one of the most innovative thinkers in the fight against global poverty. Using randomised controlled trials, a study design adopted from clinical research, she identifies and documents effective measures in the fight against poverty. The Jameel Poverty Action Lab, which she co-founded with her husband, has a track record of hundreds of ongoing and completed randomised evaluations in more than 80 countries.
Duflo presented her ground-breaking approach to eradicating poverty at the Falling Walls Conference in 2017. The video of her talk can be found here.
About the Falling Walls Foundation
The Falling Walls Foundation is a non-profit organisation based in Berlin which creates international and interdisciplinary platforms and networks. Each year, on the anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, it asks “Which walls will fall next?” at the international Falling Walls Conference. There, 20 top scientists from all over the world present breakthroughs in science, the humanities, economics, and technology in front of an audience of 750 decision-makers and innovators from politics, science, industry, and society. In addition, the Falling Walls Foundation coordinates the Berlin Science Week, a 10-day gathering that brings together people from the world’s most innovative scientific institutions. The Young Entrepreneurs in Science initiative is another project of the Falling Walls Foundation, which encourages doctoral students to consider starting their own business. The Falling Walls Foundation is generously supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the Helmholtz Association, the Berlin Senate, and numerous other acclaimed academic institutions, foundations, companies, non-governmental organisations, and prominent individuals. www.falling-walls.com
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