AUB Announces the Samir Makdisi Award in Economics

To honor Professor Samir Makdisi for his many and distinguished contributions to the Department of Economics and the economics profession at AUB, the Department has recommended and the University has approved the establishment of the Samir Makdisi Award in Economics. An initial endowment has already been set up contributed by a former student of Professor Makdisi. He made the contribution soon after learning of the establishment of the award.

The award, initially set at $1,000 but to increase as the endowment increases, will be presented annually to a graduate student majoring in financial economics or economics who is judged to have written the best financial economics project or economics thesis. The selection of the winner or winners, in case the decision is to split the prize between two deserving students, will be made according to criteria to be developed by the Economics Department and approved by the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The award will be announced by the dean, together with other FAS awards, at the end of the academic year.

Several factors have led to the creation of this award; they include Professor Makdisi's long and distinguished years of service to the University and Department of Economics and his profound contributions to economic research and teaching. 'It was natural," as Professor Simon Neaime, chair of the department, put it, "that the economics faculty who have known Professor Makdisi and his various contributions should decide to honor him by proposing this award."

Even though the criteria for selecting the awardees have not been finalized yet, one criterion has been determined. "Theses or projects have to be of sufficiently high quality to deserve the award," asserts Professor Neaime, who will soon send out an announcement to graduate students at the department urging them to compete for the award. He added, "It will help promote and stimulate high quality economic research among our graduate students."

Asked to comment on the award, Professor Makdisi said he feels honored that the department decided to create this award in his name. He added that some of the projects and theses prepared by economics graduate students have indeed been of very high quality.

Even though Professor Makdisi is retiring from teaching, he will continue to manage an IDRC supported major research project on democracy and development in the Arab world which involves 16 established researchers in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. The project is housed at the Institute of Financial Economics.