On November 10, President Obama announced the nineteen recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Included among them was economist Robert Solow, the Russell Sage Foundation’s Robert K. Merton Scholar and Institute Professor Emeritus at MIT.

“Robert Solow is one of the most widely respected economists of the past 60 years,” the White House said of the scholar, who received the Nobel Prize in economics in 1987. “His research in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s transformed the field, laying the groundwork for much of modern economics. He continues to influence policymakers, demonstrating how smart investments, especially in new technology, can build broad-based prosperity, and he continues to actively participate in contemporary debates about inequality and economic growth.”