This Article is from Minnesota Public Radio Online.
Leonid Hurwicz -- commanding intellect, humble soul, Nobel Prize winner
October 15, 2007
This year's winner of the Nobel Prize for economics was a faculty
member at the University of Minnesota for more than a half century.
Leonid Hurwicz shares the award with two other economists who built on
his work. The 90-year-old is known as a gentle and supportive soul with
a demanding intellect. He built a reputation at the U that attracted
international admiration, respect and fond remembrances.
Minneapolis —
Leonid Hurwicz is renowned for his pioneering economic theory. But he
is also known for his interest in a wide variety of subjects -- from
linguistics to biochemistry to music. And he's been known to visit
archaelogical sites in the Middle East.
Colleague V.V. Chari remembers the
first time he met Hurwicz at a party, Chari got a detailed lesson on
his native language from the Tamil Nadu state of India.
"Put simply, a Jew from Poland was
explaining to a Tamilian what Tamil was all about. That was truly an
amazing, eye-opening experience," says Chari.
Chari is an economics professor at
the University of Minnesota and has known Hurwicz for more than 25
years. Like nearly everyone who knows Hurwicz, Chari uses the word
"humble" to describe him.
"He took real delight in talking to students. He
did all that because he treated everybody as his intellectual equal,
even though the vast majority of us were not," says Chari. "He treated
us all with respect for our intellegence, and an assumption that we
knew what we were talking about."
Hurwicz was born in Moscow to
Polish refugees of World War I. His family moved back to Poland shortly
after the revolution that gave rise to Joseph Stalin.
At the urging of his father,
Hurwicz earned a law degree from the University of Warsaw, but he had
since found the subject of his lifelong academic pursuit in a
second-year economics class. He entered the London School of Academics.
When Hitler invaded Poland, Hurwicz
became a refugee, eventually landing in the United States where he
continued his studies at Harvard and the University of Chicago.
Chari says Hurwicz's experiences and his ability to connect with ordinary people shaped his high-performing intellect.
"I think a lot of that just came from his humility, and his
understanding that centrally planned systems cannot possibly function
very well," says Chari. "He said, 'If I can't handle it, the odds
anybody else will be able to handle it are pretty small.'"
Hurwicz first came to Minnesota in
1951 at the urging of Walter Heller, then head of the economics
department. The two had nearly opposite approaches to their work, but
proved to be a formidable team that cemented the University of
Minnesota's reputation as an academic powerhouse.
Hurwicz taught graduate economics classes up until last year. Chari says he maintains a drive to connect with students.
"He was the antithesis of the 'publish or perish' mentality. For him,
it was not important that a paper got published in a famous journal. It
was really important that young people learned about it, and that's
what he cared about," says Chari.
Like many notable intellectuals,
Hurwicz prefers the exploration of heady concepts over the management
of daily details. His university office and parts of his south
Minneapolis home became an ad hoc library of research papers and other
documents, piled roughly in the order they were arrived.
"Leo is the second most
disorganized person I know, other than me," Chari says. "All the work
he did, he did for the sheer love of it. I'm sure there are thousands
of manuscripts that he's written, that he's simply forgotten to
publish, hidden away in his drawers."
Hurwicz's life and career is a
near unanimous collection of praise both for his work and his
connection to those around him.
U of M President Robert Bruininks
spoke to Hurwicz shortly after he learned he'd won the Nobel. Bruininks
says Hurwicz characteristically downplayed his own accomplishments.
"He was surprised by the award,
deeply appreciative of the recognition of this work. But he expected
that he largely received this recognition because he outlived his
contemporaries," Bruininks says. "He's a very humble person who took a
deep interest in his students at the University of Minnesota. He was a
wonderful, gracious colleague. But through his work, he has had a
profound impact on the study of economics around the world." Bruininks
says Hurwicz remained at the U of M despite numerous offers to teach at
any number of prestigious institutions around the world.
When contacted, Hurwicz own first reaction was to credit other people he worked with.
"I realize there's a limit to how many names they can put on a prize,
but I just wanted to stress it's not just my own accomplishment but the
help, collaboration from these many other people," Hurwicz said.
When asked what he planned to do
with the recognition the Nobel Prize will bring, along with his portion
of the $1.5 million that he splits with two other scholars, his wife of
more than 60 years answered for him.
Evelyn Hurwicz says her husband
has been so busy talking with reporters and well-wishers he hasn't had
any time to think about it.
