Awards

Honorary Degree - 1991

D.S.

Doctor of Science

Commencement

Indianapolis, Indiana

Presenter: Thomas Ehrlich

About Donald J. Brown

Donald J. Brown is a leading mathematical economist. Applying his superb talents as a mathematician to the theory of economics, he has contributed significantly to the discovery and understanding of principles underlying economic models, and has developed analytic methods that invigorate the mathematical theory of economics.

Dr. Brown received the BA from the University of Colorado in 1962, the MSc from Pennsylvania State University in 1964, and the PhD from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1969. He served on the technical staff of Bell Telephone Laboratories from 1964-1969, before joining the faculty of Yale University, where he chaired the Department of Economics from 1984-1987. He was appointed Mellon Term Professor of Economics at Yale in 1987. Now professor of economics at Standford University, he was a fellow at the Indiana University for Advanced Study in 1988-1989.

Early in his career, Dr. Brown pioneered the use of nonstandard analytical methods in economics that have since become influential in economic analysis. Among his most important contributions is his investigation of economic models with an infinite number of commodities. His rigorous mathematical analysis of these models has shed new light on economic equilibrium theories and advanced our understanding of the supply and demand trade-offs central to economics.

Dr. Brown's modeling of the stock market, commodity spaces, speculation, and other topics has helped clarify the associated structural issues. He is consistently on the research forefront on issues ranging from social choice and marginal cost pricing to game theory. His work has significant implications for theories of macro-dynamics, optimal growth, and financial asset pricing. He is editor of the Journal of Mathematical Economics and a fellow of the Econometric Society.