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Nobel laureate Gary Becker was chosen to receive one of the four 2008 Bradley Prizes awarded by The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Becker will be presented the award, which carries a stipend of $250,000, during a ceremony June 4 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.
Becker, University Professor of Sociology and of Economics, is also the Rose-Marie and Jack R. Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.
“The Bradley Foundation selected Dr. Becker for his original research in the fields of economics and sociology,” said Michael Grebe, foundation president and CEO. “Dr. Becker’s pioneering work in the fields of economics and human behavior has revolutionized those fields of study and inspired a generation of economists.”
Becker was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Science in 1992 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007. He is a member of the Advisory Committee on Financial Innovation of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and the Hoover Task Force on Energy.
Becker is the author of more than ten books and was a BusinessWeek columnist for nearly 20 years. He regularly debates public policy issues on a blog he coauthors with Judge Richard Posner of the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.
The selection was based on nominations solicited from more than 100 prominent individuals and chosen by a selection committee that included Grebe as well as Pierre S. du Pont, Charles Krauthammer, Heather Mac Donald, Thomas L. Rhodes, Dianne J. Sehler, Shelby Steele, David V. Uihlein Jr., and George F. Will.
“Through the Bradley Prizes, we recognize individuals like Dr. Becker who have made outstanding contributions and we hope to encourage others to strive for excellence in their respective fields,” said Grebe.
Founded in 1985, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation is devoted to strengthening American democratic capitalism and the institutions, principles and values that sustain and nurture it. Its programs support limited, competent government; a dynamic marketplace for economic, cultural activity; and a vigorous defense, at home and abroad, of American ideas and institutions. Recognizing that responsible self-government depends on enlightened citizens and informed public opinion, the foundation supports scholarly studies and academic achievement.