Athena SWAN Bronze Award
The Faculty of Economics has been formally recognised for its commitment to equality by achieving the Athena SWAN Bronze award for the first time.
The Athena SWAN Charter is an initiative established by the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) designed to recognise and encourage good practice in gender equality in Higher Education. It was first started in 2005 to acknowledge progression in advancing the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM). The charter now recognises work undertaken to address gender equality more broadly, and not just barriers to progression that affect women.
In 2019, the Faculty of Economics completed a self-assessment, led by Dr Elisa Faraglia, covering gender balance amongst staff and students, opportunities for career progression and the quality of the working environment. An application documenting these findings and the resulting proposals and strategies for improvement was submitted in November 2019 for the Athena SWAN Bronze Award.
More details: http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/news/athena-swan-bronze-award
Dr Mohamed A. El-Erian elected as new President
The Governing Body of Queens' College, Cambridge has announced the election of Dr Mohamed A. El-Erian as its 42nd President. Mohamed A. El-Erian read Economics as an undergraduate scholar at Queens’ (1977-80) and completed his MPhil and DPhil at Oxford University, also in Economics.
He is a columnist at Bloomberg News, a Financial Times contributing editor, on the board of several non-profits and one corporate board, and has advised governments, industrial and financial companies.
More details: https://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/life-at-queens/news-and-events/dr-mohamed-a-el-erian-elected-as-new-president
Professor Chris Abell FRS, FMedSci (1957 – 2020)
The Faculty of Economics and the University of Cambridge are saddened to announce that Professor Chris Abell, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, one of the Managers of the Keynes Fund, Professor of Biological Chemistry and Todd-Hamied Fellow of Christ’s College, has died suddenly at the age of 62.
A biological chemist, he was a pioneer in the field of fragment-based drug discovery, a successful entrepreneur, a founding director of Cambridge Enterprise, and the University’s first Director of Postdoctoral Affairs.
Chris provided much support in recent years to the Faculty, in particular to its research strategy and profile, and we are deeply saddened by his passing.
Professor Eric French
The Faculty of Economics is delighted to welcome Professor Eric French to his position as the Montague Burton Professor of Industrial Relations and Labour Economics.
Professor French joins us from University College London. His areas of expertise are labour economics, public finance and applied econometrics.
More details: http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/people/faculty/ebf26
Dr Julius Vainora
Dr Julius Vainora has joined the Faculty as a University Lecturer. He received his PhD from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in 2020.
His research interests are econometrics, machine learning, and network econometrics. Next year he will be teaching Advanced Econometrics (with an emphasis on machine learning).
Dr Julius Vainora is working on several papers on network data (particularly network dependence), machine learning, and specification testing.
More details: http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/people/faculty/jv429
Appointed to Board of Economists, São Paulo
Dr Tiago Cavalcanti has been appointed to join the Board of Economics of the State of São Paulo in Brazil. The group will provide external expert economic analysis, current and future financial outlooks, and advice to the governor of São Paulo and state secretaries.
The Board of Economists will also provide economic impact assessments of policies implemented across the State of São Paulo and those introduced by the Brazilian Federal government.
More details: http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/news-item?item=cavalcanti-board-of-economists-brazil-sept-2020
Chief Economic Adviser to Ukraine
Dr Alex Rodnyansky has been appointed as Chief Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister of Ukraine. Dr Rodnyansky is responsible for drafting and monitoring the overall economic reform agenda in Ukraine, devoting particular attention toward its internal consistency.
This has meant setting out the overarching principles of reform—all broadly aimed at increasing levels of economic freedom—and, together with other ministries, formulating a detailed reform package that coversnearly all spheres of policy: from resuscitated and transparent privatisation efforts, to land reform as well as steps aimed at greater financial openness and inclusion.
More details: http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/news-item?item=rodnyansky-economic-adviser-ukraine-october-19
Professor Tony Cockerill
We would like to thank Professor Tony Cockerill for his many years of hard work producing and editing the previous printed edition of the alumni magazine Cambridge Economics. All the previous printed editions are now available as downloadable PDFs on the archive from the faculty website here.
http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/economics-alumni/alumni-newsletters