Name	Columbia University in the City of New York
Image name	ColumbiaNYUCoat.svg
Motto	''In lumine Tuo videbimus lumen'' (Latin)
Mottoeng	In Thy light shall we see the light (Psalm 36:9)
Established	1754
Type	Private
Endowment	US$6.5 billion
Calendar	Semester
President	Lee C. Bollinger
Students	27,606
Undergrad	7,934
Postgrad	19,672
Non-degree	2,165
Faculty	3,634
City	New York
State	N.Y.
Country	US
Campus	Total, 299 acres (1.23 km²)
Athletics	NCAA Division I FCS, Ivy League31 sports teams
Affiliations	MAISA; AAU
Free label	Newspaper
Free	''Columbia Daily Spectator''
Colors	Columbia blue and White
Mascot	Columbia Lions
Website	columbia.edu
Logo	}}

Columbia University in the City of New York (Columbia University) is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution. Today the University operates four Columbia Global Centers overseas in Amman, Jordan; Beijing, China; Paris, France; and Mumbai, India.

The University was founded in 1754 as King's College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain. After the American Revolutionary War King's College briefly became a state entity, and was renamed Columbia College in 1784. The University now operates under a 1787 charter that places the institution under a private board of trustees, and in 1896 it was further renamed Columbia University. That same year, the University's campus was moved from Madison Avenue to its current location in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, where it occupies more than six city blocks, or . The University encompasses twenty schools and is affiliated with numerous institutions, including Teachers College, Barnard College, and the Union Theological Seminary, with joint undergraduate programs available through the Jewish Theological Seminary of America as well as the Juilliard School.

Columbia annually administers the Pulitzer Prize and has been affiliated with more Nobel Prize laureates than any other academic institution in the world. Additionally, the University is one of the fourteen founding members of the prestigious Association of American Universities, and was the first school in the United States to grant the M.D. degree. Notable students of the University include 20 living billionaires; nine Justices of the United States Supreme Court; 25 Academy Award winners; and 29 Heads of State, including three United States Presidents.

History

King's College (1754-1784)

Discussions regarding the founding of a college in the Province of New York began as early as 1704, when Colonel Lewis Morris wrote to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the missionary arm of the Church of England, persuading the society that New York City was an ideal community in which to establish a college; however, not until the founding of Princeton University across the Hudson River in New Jersey did the City of New York seriously consider founding a college. In 1746 an act was passed by the general assembly of New York to raise funds for the foundation of a new college. In 1751, the assembly appointed a commission of ten New York residents, seven of whom were members of the Church of England, to direct the funds accrued by the state lottery towards the foundation of a college.

Classes were initially held in July of 1754 and were presided over by the college's first president, Dr. Samuel Johnson. Dr. Johnson was the only instructor of the college's first class, which consisted of a mere eight students. Instruction was held in a new schoolhouse adjoining Trinity Church, located on what is now lower Broadway in Manhattan. The college was officially founded on October 31, 1754, as King's College by royal charter of King George II, making it the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York and the fifth oldest in the United States.

In 1763, Dr. Johnson was succeeded in the presidency by Myles Cooper, a graduate of The Queen's College, Oxford, and an ardent Tory. In the charged political climate of the American Revolution, his chief opponent in discussions at the College was an undergraduate of the class of 1777, Alexander Hamilton. The American Revolutionary War broke out in 1776, and was catastrophic for the operation of King's College, which suspended instruction for eight years beginning in 1776 with the arrival of the Continental Army. The suspension continued through the military occupation of New York City by British troops until their departure in 1783. The college's library was looted and its sole building requisitioned for use as a military hospital first by American and then British forces.

Columbia College (1784-1896)

After the Revolution, the college turned to the State of New York in order to restore its vitality, promising to make whatever changes to the schools charter the state might demand. The Legislature agreed to assist the college, and on May 1, 1784, it passed "an Act for granting certain privileges to the College heretofore called King's College." The Act created a Board of Regents to oversee the resuscitation of King's College, and, in an effort to demonstrate its support for the new Republic, the Legislature stipulated that "the College within the City of New York heretofore called King's College be forever hereafter called and known by the name of Columbia College." The Regents finally became aware of the college's defective constitution in February of 1787 and appointed a revision committee, which was headed by John Jay and Alexander Hamilton. In April of that same year, a new charter was adopted for the college, still in use today, granting power to a private board of 24 Trustees.

On the May 21, 1787, William Samuel Johnson, the son of Dr. Samuel Johnson, was unanimously elected President of Columbia College. Prior to serving at the University, Johnson had participated in the First Continental Congress and been chosen as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. For a period in the 1790s, with New York City as the federal and state capital and the country under successive Federalist governments, a revived Columbia thrived under the auspices of Federalists such as Hamilton and Jay. Both President George Washington and Vice President John Adams attended the College's commencement on May 6, 1789, as a tribute of honor to the many alumni of the school that had been involved in the American Revolution.

The College's enrollment, structure, and academics stagnated for the majority of the 19th century, with many of the college presidents doing little to change the way that the College functioned. In 1857, the College moved from Park Place to a primarily Gothic Revival campus on 49th Street and Madison Avenue, where it remained for the next fifty years. During the last half of the 19th century, under the leadership of President F.A.P. Barnard, the institution rapidly assumed the shape of a modern university. By this time, the College's investments in New York real estate became a primary source of steady income for the school, mainly owing to the city's rapidly expanding population.

Columbia University (1896-present)

In 1896, the trustees officially authorized the use of yet another new name, Columbia University, and today the institution is officially known as "Columbia University in the City of New York." At the same time, university president Seth Low moved the campus again, from 49th Street to its present location, a more spacious campus in the developing neighborhood of Morningside Heights. Under the leadership of Low's successor, Nicholas Murray Butler, who served for over four decades, Columbia rapidly became the nation's major institution for research, setting the "multiversity" model that later universities would adopt.

Research into the atom by faculty members John R. Dunning, I. I. Rabi, Enrico Fermi and Polykarp Kusch placed Columbia's Physics Department in the international spotlight in the 1940s after the first nuclear pile was built to start what became the Manhattan Project. In 1947, to meet the needs of GIs returning from World War II, University Extension was reorganized as an undergraduate college and designated the Columbia University School of General Studies. During the 1960s Columbia experienced large-scale student activism, which reached a climax in the spring of 1968 when hundreds of students occupied various buildings on campus. The incident forced the resignation of Columbia's then President, Grayson Kirk and the establishment of the University Senate. Columbia University first admitted women in the fall of 1983, after a decade of failed negotiations with Barnard College, an all female institution affiliated with the University, to merge the two schools. Barnard College still remains affiliated with Columbia, and all Barnard graduates are issued diplomas authorized by both Columbia University and Barnard College.

Campus

Morningside Heights

The majority of Columbia's graduate and undergraduate studies are conducted in Morningside Heights on Seth Low's late-19th century vision of a university campus where all disciplines could be taught in one location. The campus was designed along Beaux-Arts principles by architects McKim, Mead, and White. Columbia's main campus occupies more than six city blocks, or , in Morningside Heights, New York City, a neighborhood that contains a number of academic institutions. The university owns over 7,800 apartments in Morningside Heights, housing faculty, graduate students, and staff. Almost two dozen undergraduate dormitories (purpose-built or converted) are located on campus or in Morningside Heights. Columbia University has an extensive underground tunnel system more than a century old, with the oldest portions predating the present campus. Some of these remain accessible to the public, while others have been cordoned off.

The Nicholas Murray Butler Library, commonly known simply as Butler Library, is the largest single library in the Columbia University Library System, and is one of the largest buildings on the campus. Proposed as "South Hall" by the University's former President Nicholas Murray Butler as expansion plans for Low Memorial Library stalled, the new library was funded by Edward Harkness, benefactor of Yale's residential college system, and designed by his favorite architect, James Gamble Rogers. It was completed in 1934 and renamed for Butler in 1946. The library's design is neo-classical in style. Its facade features an arcade of columns in the Ionic order above which are inscribed the names of great writers, philosophers, and thinkers, most of whom are read by students engaged in the Core Curriculum of Columbia College. As of 2009, Columbia's library system includes over 10.4 million volumes, making it the eighth largest library system and fifth largest collegiate library system in the United States.

Several buildings on the Morningside Heights campus are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Low Memorial Library, a National Historic Landmark and the centerpiece of the campus, is listed for its architectural significance. Philosophy Hall is listed as the site of the invention of FM radio. Also listed is Pupin Hall, another National Historic Landmark, which houses the physics and astronomy departments. Here the first experiments on the fission of uranium were conducted by Enrico Fermi. The uranium atom was split there ten days after the world's first atom-splitting in Copenhagen, Denmark.

A statue by sculptor Daniel Chester French called ''Alma Mater'' is centered on the front steps of Low Memorial Library. McKim, Mead & White invited French to build the sculpture in order to harmonize with the larger composition of the court and library in the center of the campus. Draped in an academic gown, the female figure of Alma Mater wears a crown of laurels and sits on a throne. The scroll-like arms of the throne end in lamps, representing sapientia and doctrina. A book signifying knowledge, balances on her lap, and an owl, the attribute of wisdom, is hidden in the folds of her gown. Her right hand holds a scepter composed of four sprays of wheat, terminating with a crown of King's College which refers to Columbia's origin as a Royalist institution in 1754. A local actress named Mary Lawton was said to have posed for parts of the sculpture. The statue was dedicated on September 23, 1903, as a gift of Mr. & Mrs. Robert Goelet, and was originally covered in golden leaf. During the Columbia University protests of 1968 a bomb damaged the sculpture, but it has since been repaired. The small hidden owl on the sculpture is also the subject of many Columbia legends, the main legend being that the first student in the freshmen class to find the hidden owl on the statue will be valedictorian, and that any subsequent Columbia male who finds it will marry a Barnard student, given that Barnard is a women's college.

"The Steps", alternatively known as "Low Steps" or the "Urban Beach", are a popular meeting area for Columbia students. The term refers to the long series of granite steps leading from the lower part of campus (South Field) to its upper terrace. With a design inspired by the City Beautiful movement, the steps of Low Library provides Columbia university and Barnard College students, faculty, and staff with a comfortable and spacious outdoor platform and space for informal gatherings, events, and ceremonies. McKim's classical facade epitomizes late 19th century new-classical designs, with its columns and portico marking the entrance to an important structure. On warm days when the weather is favorable, the Low Steps often become a popular gathering place for students to sunbathe, eat lunch, or play frisbee.

Other campuses

In April 2007, the University purchased more than two-thirds of a site for a new campus in Manhattanville, an industrial neighborhood to the north of the Morningside Heights campus. Stretching from 125th Street to 133rd Street, the new campus will house buildings for Columbia's schools of business and the arts and allow the construction of the Jerome L. Greene Center for Mind, Brain, and Behavior, where research will occur on neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. The $7 billion expansion plan includes demolishing all buildings, except three that are historically significant, eliminating the existing light industry and storage warehouses, and relocating tenants in 132 apartments. Replacing these buildings will be of space for the University. Community activist groups in West Harlem fought the expansion for reasons ranging from property protection and fair exchange for land, to residents' rights. Subsequent public hearings drew neighborhood opposition. Most recently, as of December 2008, the State of New York's Empire State Development Corporation approved use of eminent domain, which, through declaration of Manhattanville's "blighted" status, gives governmental bodies the right to appropriate private property for public use. On May 20, 2009, the New York State Public Authorities Control Board approved the Manhanttanville expansion plan.

New York-Presbyterian Hospital is affiliated with the medical schools of both Columbia University and Cornell University. According to ''US News and World Report''s "Americas Best Hospitals 2009", it is ranked sixth overall and third among university hospitals. Columbia Medical School has a strategic partnership with New York State Psychiatric Institute, and is affiliated with 19 other hospitals in the U.S. and four hospitals overseas. Health-related schools are located at the Columbia University Medical Center, a campus located in the neighborhood of Washington Heights, fifty blocks uptown. Other teaching hospitals affiliated with Columbia through the New York-Presbyterian network include the Payne Whitney Clinic in Manhattan, and the Payne Whitney Westchester, a psychiatric institute located in White Plains, New York. On the northern tip of Manhattan island (in the neighborhood of Inwood), Columbia owns Baker Field, which includes the Lawrence A. Wien Stadium as well as facilities for field sports, outdoor track, and tennis. There is a third campus on the west bank of the Hudson River, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York. A fourth is the Nevis Laboratories in Irvington, New York. A satellite site in Paris, France holds classes at Reid Hall.

Sustainability

In 2006, the University established the Office of Environmental Stewardship to initiate, coordinate and implement programs to reduce the University’s environmental footprint. The U.S. Green Building Council selected the University’s Manhattanville plan for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Neighborhood Design pilot program. The plan commits to incorporating smart growth, new urbanism and “green” building design principles. Columbia is one of the 2030 Challenge Partners, a group of nine universities in the city of New York that have pledged to reduce their greenhouse emissions by 30% within the next ten years. Columbia University adopts LEED standards for all new construction and major renovations. The University requires a minimum of Silver, but through its design and review process seeks to achieve higher levels. This is especially challenging for lab and research buildings with their intensive energy use; however, the University also uses lab design guidelines that seek to maximize energy efficiency while protecting the safety of researchers.

Every Thursday and Sunday of the month, Columbia hosts a greenmarket where local farmers can sell their produce to residents of the city. In addition, from April to November Hodgson’s farm, a local New York gardening center, joins the market bringing a large selection of plants and blooming flowers. The market is one of the many operated at different points throughout the city by the non-profit group GrowNYC. Dining services at Columbia spends 36 percent of its food budget on local products, in addition to serving sustainably harvested seafood and fair trade coffee on campus. Columbia has been rated "B+" by the 2011 College Sustainability Report Card for its environmental and sustainability initiatives.

Academics

Undergraduate admissions and financial aid

Columbia University's acceptance rate for the class of 2015 (Columbia College and Engineering) is 6.90%, making Columbia the second most selective college in the United States by admission rate behind Harvard. The undergraduate yield rate for the class of 2014 is 59%. According to the 2011 college selectivity ranking by U.S. News & World Report, which factors admission and yield rates among other criteria, Columbia is the third most selective college in the nation, behind Yale and Caltech and tied with Harvard, MIT, and Princeton. Columbia sends approximately 90% of its undergraduates to graduate school in virtually every academic, professional and vocational field. Columbia is a racially diverse school, with approximately 52% of all students identifying themselves as persons of color. Additionally, 50.3% of all undergraduates in the Class of 2013 receive financial aid. The average financial aid package for these students exceeds $30,000, with an average grant size of over $20,000.

On April 11, 2007, Columbia University announced a $400m to $600m donation from media billionaire alumnus John Kluge to be used exclusively for undergraduate financial aid. The donation is among the largest single gifts to higher education. Its exact value will depend on the eventual value of Kluge's estate at the time of his death; however, the generous donation has helped change financial aid policy at Columbia. Annual gifts, fund-raising, and an increase in spending from the university’s endowment have allowed Columbia to extend generous financial aid packages to qualifying students. As of 2008, undergraduates from families with incomes as high as $60,000 a year will have the projected cost of attending the University, including room, board, and academic fees, subsidized by the University. That same year, the University ended loans for incoming and current students who were on financial aid, replacing loans that were traditionally part of aid packages with grants from the university. However, this does not apply to international students, transfer students, visiting students, or students in the School of General Studies. In the fall of 2010, admission to Columbia's undergraduate colleges Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Science began accepting the Common Application. The policy change made Columbia one of the last major academic institutions and the last Ivy League university to switch to the common application.

Organization

Columbia University is an independent, privately supported, nonsectarian institution of higher education. Its official corporate name is “The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York.” The University’s first Charter was granted in 1754 by King George II; however, its current Charter was first enacted in 1787 and last amended in 1810 by the New York State Legislature. The University is governed by 24 Trustees, customarily including the President, who serves ex officio. The Trustees themselves are responsible for choosing their successors. Six of the 24 are nominated from a pool of candidates recommended by the Columbia Alumni Association. Another six are nominated by the Board in consultation with the Executive Committee of the University Senate. The remaining 12, including the President, are nominated by the Trustees themselves through their internal processes. The term of office for Trustees is six years. Generally, they serve for no more than two consecutive terms. The Trustees appoint the President and other senior administrative officers of the University, and review and confirm faculty appointments as required. They determine the University’s financial and investment policies, authorize the budget, supervise the endowment, direct the management of the University’s real estate and other assets, and otherwise oversee the administration and management of the University.

The University Senate was established by the Trustees after a University-wide referendum in 1969. It succeeded to the powers of the University Council, which was created in 1890 as a body of faculty, deans, and other administrators to regulate inter-Faculty affairs and consider issues of University-wide concern. The University Senate is a unicameral body consisting of 107 members drawn from all constituencies of the University. These include the President of the University, the Provost, the Deans of Columbia College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, all who serve ex officio, and five additional representatives, appointed by the President, from the University’s administration. The President serves as the Senate’s presiding officer. The Senate is charged with reviewing the educational policies, physical development, budget, and external relations of the University. It oversees the welfare and academic freedom of the faculty and the welfare of students.

The President of Columbia University, who is selected by the Trustees in consultation with the Executive Committee of the University Senate and who serves at the Trustees’ pleasure, is the chief executive officer of the University. Assisting the President in administering the University are the Provost, the Senior Executive Vice President, the Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences, several other vice presidents, the General Counsel, the Secretary of the University, and the deans of the Faculties, all of whom are appointed by the Trustees on the nomination of the President and serve at their pleasure. Lee C. Bollinger became the 19th President of Columbia University on June 1, 2002. A prominent advocate of affirmative action, he played a leading role in the twin Supreme Court cases—Grutter v Bollinger and Gratz v Bollinger—that upheld and clarified the importance of diversity as a compelling justification for affirmative action in higher education. A leading First Amendment scholar, he is widely published on freedom of speech and press, and currently serves on the faculty of Columbia Law School.

Columbia has three official undergraduate colleges: Columbia College (CC), the liberal arts college offering the Bachelor of Arts degree, The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), the engineering and applied science school offering the Bachelor of Science degree, and The School of General Studies (GS), in which nontraditional students obtain a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science through either full time or part time study. The University is affiliated with Teachers College, Barnard College, the Union Theological Seminary, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, all located nearby in Morningside Heights. Joint undergraduate programs are available through the Jewish Theological Seminary of America as well as through the Juilliard School. Two affiliated institutions – Barnard College and Teachers College – are also Faculties of the University.

Research and rankings

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arwu n	7
forbes	13
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Columbia is ranked first (tied with MIT and Stanford University) in the first tier of the United States' top research universities by the Center for Measuring University Performance, which takes into account total research, federal research, endowment assets, annual giving, National Academy members, faculty awards, doctorates granted, postdoctoral appointees, and undergraduate SAT/ACT range. Columbia was the first North American site where the Uranium atom was split. It was the birthplace of FM radio and the laser. The MPEG-2 algorithm of transmitting high quality audio and video over limited bandwidth was developed by Dimitris Anastassiou, a Columbia professor of electrical engineering. Biologist Martin Chalfie was the first to introduce the use of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) in labelling cells in intact organisms. Other inventions and products related to Columbia include Sequential Lateral Solidification (SLS) technology for making LCDs, System Management Arts (SMARTS), Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) (which is used for audio, video, chat, instant messaging and whiteboarding), pharmacopeia, Macromodel (software for computational chemistry), a new and better recipe for glass concrete, Blue LEDs, and Beamprop (used in photonics). Columbia scientists have been credited with about 175 new inventions in the health sciences each year. More than 30 pharmaceutical products based on discoveries and inventions made at Columbia are on the market today. These include Remicade (for arthritis), Reopro (for blood clot complications), Xalatan (for glaucoma), Benefix, Latanoprost (a glaucoma treatment), shoulder prosthesis, homocysteine (testing for cardiovascular disease), and Zolinza (for cancer therapy). Columbia Technology Ventures (formerly Science and Technology Ventures) currently manages some 600 patents and more than 250 active license agreements. Patent-related deals earned Columbia more than $230 million in the 2006 fiscal year, according to the university.

For 2011, Columbia was ranked #8 in ''ARWU'', #11 in ''QS'', and #18 by ''Times Higher Education''. Nationally, the university was ranked #4 by ''U.S. News & World Report'', #7 by ARWU, and #13 by ''Forbes''. Columbia's colleges and schools were also ranked by several independent bodies. For 2011, the College & School of Engineering (undergraduate) was ranked #4 nationally by ''U.S. News & World Report''. the Graduate School of Arts #11, the Columbia Business School #3 by ''The Wall Street Journal'' the Teachers College #2 by ''U.S. News & World Report'', the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (graduate) #16, the Columbia Law School #4, the College of Physicians and Surgeons #10 for research and #62 for primary care, the Mailman School of Public Health #5, and the School of International and Public Affairs #2. Additionally, Columbia's School of Social Work was ranked #4, its Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation #4, and its Graduate School of Journalism #1.

In the last 12 years (1996–2008), 18 Columbia affiliates have won Nobel Prizes, of whom nine are current faculty members while one is an adjunct senior research scientist (Daniel Tsui) and the other a Global Fellow (Kofi Annan). Current Columbia faculty awarded the Nobel Prize include Richard Axel, Martin Chalfie, Eric Kandel, Tsung-Dao Lee, Robert Mundell, Orhan Pamuk, Edmund S. Phelps, Joseph Stiglitz, and Horst L. Stormer. Other awards and honors won by current faculty include 30 MacArthur Foundation Award winners, 4 National Medal of Science recipients, 43 National Academy of Sciences Award winners, 20 National Academy of Engineering Award winners, 38 Institute of Medicine of the National Academies Award recipients and 143 American Academy of Arts and Sciences Award winners.

Student life

Students

{| style=float:right; "text-align:center; font-size:85%; margin-left:2em; margin:auto;" class="wikitable" |+ ''Demographics of Columbia University'' ! !! Undergraduate !! Graduate !! Professional |- ! Asian/Pacific Islander | 15% || 7% || 12% |- ! Black/Non-Hispanic | 8% || 3% || 4% |- ! Hispanic | 13% || 5% || 5% |- ! Native American | 1% || 0.2% || 0.2% |- ! White/Non-Hispanic | 42% || 39% || 28% |- ! International Students | 11% || 34% || 43% |}

For the 2010 academic year, Columbia University's student population was 27,606, with 35% of the student population identifying themselves as a minority and 23% born outside of the United States. Columbia enrolled 7,934 students in undergraduate programs, 5,393 students in graduate programs, and 12,090 students in professional programs.

On-campus housing is guaranteed for all four years as an undergraduate. Columbia College and SEAS share housing in the on-campus residence halls. First-year students in usually live in one of the large residence halls situated around South Lawn: Hartley Hall, Wallach Hall (originally Livingston Hall), John Jay Hall, Furnald Hall or Carman Hall. Upperclassmen participate in a room selection process, wherein students can pick to live in a mix of either corridor- or apartment-style housing with their friends. The Columbia University School of General Studies and graduate schools have their own apartment-style housing in the surrounding neighborhood.

Columbia University is home to many fraternities, sororities, and co-educational Greek organizations. Approximately 10–15% of undergraduate students are associated with Greek life. There has been a Greek presence on campus since the establishment in 1836 of the Delta Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi. The InterGreek Council is the self-governing student organization that provides guidelines and support to its member organizations within each of the three councils at Columbia, the Interfraternity Council, Panhellenic Council, and Multicultural Greek Council. The three council presidents bring their affiliated chapters together once a month to meet as one Greek community. The InterGreek Council meetings provide opportunity for member organizations to learn from each other, work together and advocate for community needs.

Publications

Columbia University is home to a rich diversity of undergraduate, graduate, and professional publications. The ''Columbia Daily Spectator'' is the nation's second-oldest student newspaper; and ''The Blue and White'', a monthly literary magazine established in 1890, has recently begun to delve into campus life and local politics in print and on its daily blog, dubbed the ''Bwog''.

Political publications include ''The Current'', a journal of politics, culture and Jewish Affairs; the ''Columbia Political Review'', the multi-partisan political magazine of the Columbia Political Union; and ''AdHoc'', which denotes itself as the "progressive" campus magazine and deals largely with local political issues and arts events.

Arts and literary publications include the ''Columbia Review'', the nation's oldest college literary magazine; ''Columbia'', a nationally regarded literary journal; the ''Columbia Journal of Literary Criticism''; and ''The Mobius Strip'', an online arts and literary magazine. ''Inside New York'' is an annual guidebook to New York City, written, edited, and published by Columbia undergraduates. Through a distribution agreement with Columbia University Press, the book is sold at major retailers and independent bookstores.

Columbia is home to numerous undergraduate academic publications. The ''Journal of Politics & Society'', is a journal of undergraduate research in the social sciences, published and distributed nationally by the Helvidius Group; ''Publius'' is an undergraduate journal of politics established in 2008 and published biannually; the ''Columbia East Asia Review'' allows undergraduates throughout the world to publish original work on China, Japan, Korea, Tibet, and Vietnam and is supported by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute; and ''The Birch'', is an undergraduate journal of Eastern European and Eurasian culture that is the first national student-run journal of its kind; and the ''Columbia Science Review'' is a science magazine that prints general interest articles, faculty profiles, and student research papers.

''The Fed'' a triweekly satire and investigative newspaper, and the ''Jester of Columbia'', the newly (and frequently) revived campus humor magazine both inject humor into local life. Other publications include ''The Columbian'', the undergraduate colleges' annually published yearbook the ''Gadfly'', a biannual journal of popular philosophy produced by undergraduates; and ''Rhapsody in Blue'', an undergraduate urban studies magazine. Professional journals published by academic departments at Columbia University include ''Current Musicology'' and ''The Journal of Philosophy''. During the spring semester, graduate students in the Journalism School publish ''The Bronx Beat'', a bi-weekly newspaper covering the South Bronx. Teachers College publishes the ''Teachers College Record'', a journal of research, analysis, and commentary in the field of education, published continuously since 1900.

Founded in 1961 under the auspices of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) examines day-to-day press performance as well as the forces that affect that performance. The magazine is published six times a year, and offers a deliberative mix of reporting, analysis, criticism, and commentary. CJR.org, its Web site, delivers real-time criticism and reporting, giving CJR a vital presence in the ongoing conversation about the media. Both online and in print, Columbia Journalism Review is in conversation with a community of people who share a commitment to high journalistic standards in the U.S. and the world.

Broadcasting

Columbia is home to two early pioneers in undergraduate campus radio broadcasting, WKCR-FM and CTV. WKCR, the student run radio station that broadcasts to the Tri-State area, claims to be the oldest FM radio station in the world, owing to the University's affiliation with Major Edwin Armstrong. The station went operational on July 18, 1939, from a 400-foot antenna tower in Alpine, New Jersey, broadcasting the very first FM transmission in the world. Initially, WKCR wasn't a radio station, but an organization concerned with the technology of radio communications. As membership grew, however, the nascent club turned its efforts to broadcasting. Armstrong helped the students in their early efforts, donating a microphone and turntables when they designed their first makeshift studio in a dorm room. The station currently has its studios on the second floor of Alfred Lerner Hall on the Morningside campus with its main transmitter tower at 4 Times Square in Midtown Manhattan. Columbia Television (CTV) is the nation's second oldest Student television station and home of CTV News, a weekly live news program produced by undergraduate students.

Speech and debate

The Philolexian Society is a literary and debating club founded in 1802, making it the oldest student group at Columbia, as well as the third oldest collegiate literary society in the country. The society annually administers the Joyce Kilmer Bad Poetry Contest. The Columbia Parliamentary Debate Team competes in tournaments around the country as part of the American Parliamentary Debate Association, and hosts both high school and college tournaments on Columbia's campus, as well as public debates on issues affecting the University.

The Columbia International Relations Council and Association (CIRCA), oversees Columbia's Model United Nations activities. CIRCA hosts college and high school Model UN conferences, hosts speakers influential in international politics to speak on campus, trains students from underprivileged schools in New York in Model UN and oversees a competitive team, which travels to colleges around the country and to an international conference every year. The competitive team consistently wins best and outstanding delegation awards and is considered one of the top teams in the country.

Technology and entrepreneurship

The Columbia University Organization of Rising Entrepreneurs (CORE) was founded in 1999. The student-run group aims to foster entrepreneurship on campus. Each year CORE hosts dozens of events, including a business plan competition and a series of seminars. Notable seminar speakers include Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and Chairman of HDNet, and Blake Ross, creator of Mozilla Firefox. As of 2006, CORE has awarded graduate and undergraduate students with over $100,000 in seed capital. Events are possible through the contributions of various private and corporate groups; previous sponsors include Deloitte & Touche, Citigroup, and i-Compass.

CampusNetwork, an on-campus social networking site that preceded Facebook, was created and popularized by a Columbia engineering student Adam Goldberg in 2003. Mark Zuckerberg later asked Goldberg to join him in Palo Alto to work on Facebook, but Goldberg declined the offer. The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science offers a minor in Technical Entrepreneurship through its Center for Technology, Innovation, and Community Engagement. SEAS' entrepreneurship activities focus on community building initiatives in New York and Worldwide, made possible through partners such as Microsoft Corporation.

Columbia is a top supplier of young engineering entrepreneurs for New York City. Over the past 20 years, graduates of Columbia established over 100 technology companies. Mayor Bloomberg has provided over $6.7 million into entrepreneurial programs that partner with Columbia and other universities in New York. Professor Chris Wiggins of Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science is working in conjunction with Professors Evan Korth of New York University and Hilary Mason, chief scientist at bit.ly to facilitate the growth of student tech-startups in an effort to transform a traditionally financially-centered New York City into the next Silicon Valley. Their website hackny.org is a huge gathering ground of ideas and discussions for New York's young entrepreneurial community, the Silicon Alley.

On June 14, 2010, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg launched the NYC Media Lab to promote innovations within New York's media industry. Situated in the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, the lab is a consortium of Columbia University, New York University, and New York City Economic Development Corporation acting to connect companies with universities in new technology research. The Lab is modeled after similar ones at MIT and Stanford. A $250,000 grant from the New York City Economic Development Corporation was used to establish the NYC Media Lab. Each year, the lab will host a range of roundtable discussions between the private sector and academic institutions. The lab will support research projects on topics of content format, next generation search technologies, computer animation for film and gaming, emerging marketing techniques, and new devices development. The lab will also create a media research and development database. Columbia University will coordinate the long-term direction of the media lab as well as the involvement of its faculty and those of other universities.

Athletics

A member institution of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (Division I-AA FCS), Columbia fields varsity teams in 29 sports and is a member of the Ivy League. The football Lions play home games at the 17,000-seat Lawrence A. Wien Stadium at Baker Field. One hundred blocks north of the main campus at Morningside Heights, the Baker Athletics Complex also includes facilities for baseball, softball, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, tennis, track and rowing. The basketball, fencing, swimming & diving, volleyball and wrestling programs are based at the Dodge Physical Fitness Center on the main campus.

Columbia University athletics has had a long history, with many accomplishments in various athletic fields. In 1870, Columbia played against Rutgers University in the second football game in the history of the sport. Eight years later, Columbia crew won the famed Henley Royal Regatta in the first-ever defeat for an English crew rowing in English waters. In 1900, Olympian and Columbia College student Maxie Long set the first official world record in the 400 meters with a time of 47.8 seconds. In 1983, Columbia men's soccer went 18-0 and was ranked first in the nation, but losing to Indiana 1-0 in double overtime in the NCAA championship game; nevertheless, the team went further toward the NCAA title than any Ivy League soccer team in history. The football program unfortunately is best known for its record of futility set during the 1980s: between 1983 and 1988, the team lost 44 games in a row, which is still the record for the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision. The streak was broken on October 8, 1988, with a 16-13 victory over archrival Princeton. That was the Lions' first victory at Wien Stadium, which had been opened during the losing streak and was already four years old.

Former students include baseball Hall of Famers Lou Gehrig and Eddie Collins, football Hall of Famer Sid Luckman, Marcellus Wiley, and world champion women's weightlifter Karyn Marshall. On May 17, 1939 fledgling NBC broadcasted a doubleheader between the Columbia Lions and the Princeton Tigers at Columbia's Baker Field, making it the first televised regular athletic event in history.

World Leaders Forum

Established in 2003 by current university president Lee C. Bollinger, the World Leaders Forum at Columbia University provides the opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students alike to listen to some of the most prominent world leaders in government, religion, industry, finance, and academia. The World Leaders Forum is a year-around event series that strives to provide a platform for uninhibited speech among nations and cultures, while educating students about the current problems as well as progress around the globe.

All Columbia undergraduates and graduates as well as students of Barnard College and other Columbia affiliated schools can register to participate in the World Leaders Forum using their student IDs. Even for individuals who do not have the privilege to attend the event live, they can watch the forum via online videos on Columbia University's website.

Past forum speakers include former President of the United States Bill Clinton, the Prime Minister of India Atal Behari Vajpayee, Former President of Ghana John Agyekum Kufuor, President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin, President of the Republic of Mozambique Joaquim Alberto Chissano, President of the Republic of Bolivia Carlos Diego Mesa Gisbert, President of the Republic of Romania Ion Iliescu, President of the Republic of Latvia Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, the first female President of Finland Tarja Halonen, President Yudhoyono of Indonesia, President Pervez Musharraf of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Iraq President Jalal Talabani, the 14th Dalai Lama, President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, financier George Soros, Mayor of New York City Michael R. Bloomberg of New York City, President Václav Klaus of the Czech Republic, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina, former Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, and Al Gore.

Other

The Columbia University Orchestra was founded by composer Edward MacDowell in 1896, and is the oldest continually operating university orchestra in the United States. Undergraduate student composers at Columbia may choose to become involved with Columbia New Music, which sponsors concerts of music written by undergraduate students from all of Columbia's schools.

There are a number of performing arts groups at Columbia dedicated to producing student theater, including the Columbia Players, King's Crown Shakespeare Troupe (KCST), Columbia Musical Theater Society (CMTS), NOMADS (New and Original Material Authored and Directed by Students), LateNite Theatre, Columbia University Performing Arts League (CUPAL), Black Theatre Ensemble (BTE), sketch comedy group Chowdah, and improvisational troupes Alfred and Fruit Paunch. The Columbia University Marching Band tells jokes during the campus tradition of Orgo Night.

The Columbia Queer Alliance is the central Columbia student organization that represents the lesbian, gay, transgender, and questioning student population. It is the oldest gay student organization in the world, founded as the Student Homophile League in 1967 by students including lifelong activist Stephen Donaldson. Columbia University campus military groups include the U.S. Military Veterans of Columbia University and Advocates for Columbia ROTC. In the 2005–06 academic year, the Columbia Military Society, Columbia's student group for ROTC cadets and Marine officer candidates, was renamed the Hamilton Society for "students who aspire to serve their nation through the military in the tradition of Alexander Hamilton".

The University also houses an independent nonprofit organization, Community Impact, which strives to serve disadvantaged people in the Harlem, Washington Heights, and Morningside Heights communities. From its earliest inception as a single service initiative formed in 1981 by Columbia University undergraduates, Community Impact has grown into Columbia University’s largest student service organization. CI provides food, clothing, shelter, education, job training, and companionship for residents in its surrounding communities. CI consists of a dedicated corps of about 950 Columbia University student volunteers participating in 25 community service programs, which serve more than 8,000 people each year.

Controversies and student demonstrations

Protests of 1968

Students initiated a major demonstration in 1968 over two main issues. The first was Columbia's proposed gymnasium in neighboring Morningside Park; this was seen by the protesters to be an act of aggression aimed at the black residents of neighboring Harlem. A second issue was the Columbia administration's failure to resign its institutional membership in the Pentagon's weapons research think-tank, the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA). Students barricaded themselves inside Low Library, Hamilton Hall, and several other university buildings during the protests, and New York City police were called onto the campus to arrest or forcibly remove the students.

The protests achieved two of their stated goals. Columbia disaffiliated from the IDA and scrapped the plans for the controversial gym, building a subterranean physical fitness center under the north end of campus instead. The gym's plans were eventually used by Princeton University for the expansion of its athletic facilities. At least 30 Columbia students were suspended by the administration as a result of the protests. Many of the Class of ’68 walked out of their graduation and held a countercommencement on Low Plaza with a picnic following at Morningside Park, the place where the protests began. The protests hurt Columbia financially as many potential students chose to attend other universities and some alumni refused to donate money to the school. Allan Bloom, a professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago, believed that the protest efforts at Columbia were responsible for pushing higher education further toward the liberal left. As a result of the protests, Bloom stated, “American universities were no longer places of intellectual and academic debate, but rather places of ‘political correctness’ and liberalism.”

Protests against racism and apartheid

Further student protests, including hunger strike and more barricades of Hamilton Hall and the Business School during the late 1970s and early 1980s, were aimed at convincing the university trustees to divest all of the university's investments in companies that were seen as active or tacit supporters of the apartheid regime in South Africa. A notable upsurge in the protests occurred in 1978, when following a celebration of the tenth anniversary of the student uprising in 1968, students marched and rallied in protest of University investments in South Africa. The Committee Against Investment in South Africa (CAISA) and numerous student groups including the Socialist Action Committee, the Black Student Organization and the Gay Students group joined together and succeeded in pressing for the first partial divestment of a U.S. University.

The initial (and partial) Columbia divestment, focused largely on bonds and financial institutions directly involved with the South African regime. It followed a year long campaign first initiated by students who had worked together to block the appointment of former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to an endowed chair at the University in 1977.

Broadly backed by a diverse array of student groups and many notable faculty members the Committee Against Investment in South Africa held numerous teach-ins and demonstrations through the year focused on the trustees ties to the corporations doing business with South Africa. Trustee meetings were picketed and interrupted by demonstrations culminating in May 1978 in the takeover of the Graduate School of Business.

Ahmadinejad speech controversy

The School of International and Public Affairs traditionally extends invitations to many heads of state and heads of government who come to New York City for the opening of the fall session of the United Nations General Assembly. In 2007, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was one of those invited to speak on campus. Ahmadinejad accepted his invitation and spoke on September 24, 2007, as part of Columbia University's World Leaders Forum. The invitation proved to be highly controversial. Thousands of demonstrators swarmed the campus on September 24 and the speech itself was televised worldwide. University President Lee Bollinger tried to assuage the controversy by letting Ahmadenijad speak, but with a negative introduction (given personally by Bollinger). This did not mollify those who were displeased with the fact that the Iranian leader had been invited onto the campus. Columbia students, though, turned out en masse to listen to the speech on the South Lawn. An estimated 2,500 under graduates and graduates came out for the historic occasion.

During his speech, Ahmadinejad criticized Israel's existence and policies towards the Palestinians; called for research on the historical accuracy of Holocaust; raised questions as to who initiated the 9/11 attacks; defended Iran's nuclear power program, criticizing the UN' policy of sanctions on his country; and attacked U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. In response to a question about Iran's treatment of women and homosexuals, he asserted that women are respected in Iran and that "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country... In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who told you this." The latter statement drew laughter from the audience. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office accused Columbia of accepting grant money from the Alavi Foundation to support faculty "sympathetic" to Iran's Islamic republic.

ROTC controversy

Since 1969, during the Vietnam War, the university has not allowed the US military to have Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) programs on campus. However, even after 1969, Columbia students could participate in ROTC programs at other nearby colleges and universities. At a forum at the university during the 2008 presidential election campaign, both John McCain and Barack Obama said that the university should consider reinstating ROTC on campus. After the debate, the President of the University, Lee Bollinger, stated that he did not favor reinstating Columbia's ROTC program, because of the military's anti-gay policies. In November 2008, Columbia's undergraduate student body held a referendum on the question of whether or not to invite ROTC back to campus, and the students who voted were almost evenly divided on the issue. ROTC lost the vote (which would not have been binding on the administration, and did not include graduate students, faculty, or alumni) by a fraction of a percentage point. In April 2010 during Admiral Mike Mullen's address at Columbia, president Lee Bollinger stated that the ROTC would be readmitted to campus if the admiral's plans for revoking the don't ask, don't tell policy were successful. In February 2011 during one of three town-hall meetings on the ROTC ban, former Army staff sergeant Anthony Maschek, a purple heart recipient for injuries sustained during his service in Iraq, was booed and hissed at by some students during his speech promoting the idea of allowing the ROTC on campus. In April 2011 the Columbia University Senate voted to welcome the ROTC program back on campus. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus and Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger signed an agreement to reinstate Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) programs at Columbia for the first time in more than 40 years on May 26, 2011. The agreement was signed at a ceremony onboard the USS Iwo Jima, docked in New York for the Navy’s annual Fleet Week.

Traditions

Orgo Night

On the day before the Organic Chemistry exam—which is often on the first day of finals—at precisely the stroke of midnight, the Columbia University Marching Band occupies Butler Library to distract diligent students from studying. After a forty-five minutes or so of jokes and music, the procession then moves out to the lawn in front of Hartley, Wallach and John Jay residence halls to entertain the residents there. The Band then plays at various other locations around Morningside Heights, including the residential quadrangle of Barnard College, where students of the all-women's school, in mock-consternation, rain trash – including notes and course packets – and water balloons upon them from their dormitories above. The Band tends to close their Orgo Night performances before Furnald Hall, known among students as the more studious and reportedly "anti-social" residence hall, where the underclassmen in the Band serenade the graduating seniors with an entertaining, though vulgar, mock-hymn to Columbia, composed of quips that poke fun at the various stereotypes about the Columbia student body.

Tree-Lighting and Yule Log ceremonies

The campus Tree-Lighting Ceremony is a relatively new tradition at Columbia, inaugurated in 1998. It celebrates the illumination of the medium-sized trees lining College Walk in front of Kent and Hamilton Halls on the east end and Dodge and Journalism Halls on the west, just before finals week in early December. The lights remain on until February 28. Students meet at the sun-dial for free hot chocolate, performances by various ''a cappella'' groups, and speeches by the university president and a guest.

Immediately following the College Walk festivities is one of Columbia's older holiday traditions, the lighting of the Yule Log. The ceremony dates to a period prior to the Revolutionary War, but lapsed before being revived by University President Nicholas Murray Butler in the early 20th century. A troop of students dressed as Continental Army soldiers carry the eponymous log from the sun-dial to the lounge of John Jay Hall, where it is lit amid the singing of seasonal carols. The ceremony is accompanied by a reading of ''A Visit From St. Nicholas'' by Clement Clarke Moore and ''Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus'' by Francis Pharcellus Church.

The Varsity Show

The Varsity Show is an annual musical written by and for students and was established in 1894, making it one of Columbia's oldest traditions. Past writers and directors have included Columbians Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, Lorenz Hart, I.A.L. Diamond, and Herman Wouk. The show has one of the largest operating budgets of all University events.

Notable people

Three United States Presidents, nine Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States (including three Chief Justices) and 40 Nobel Prize winners are alumni of Columbia. Alumni also have received more than 22 National Book Awards and 104 Pulitzer Prizes. Four United States Poet Laureates received their degrees from Columbia. Today, two United States Senators and 16 current Chief Executives of Fortune 500 companies hold Columbia degrees, as do three of the 25 richest Americans and 20 living billionaires. Attendees of King's College, Columbia's predecessor, included five Founding Fathers. John Jay, Robert R. Livingston, Egbert Benson, and Gouverneur Morris.|group="n"}}

Former U.S. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt attended the law school without graduating as it was common at the time for young men to enter the bar after completing only a year or two of legal education. Other notable political figures educated at Columbia include Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S President Barack Obama, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank Alan Greenspan, Senior Advisor to former U.S. President Bill Clinton George Stephanopoulos, and current U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Dwight D. Eisenhower succeeded Nicholas Murray Butler as president of Columbia, but did not take up the duties until nearly three years after Butler had resigned. He served as the University's thirteenth president from May 1948 until January 1953. The University has also had many ties to international politics, with at least 26 foreign Heads of State having been educated at Columbia. Giuliano Amato, Hafizullah Amin, Nahas Angula, Marek Belka, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Gaston Eyskens, Mark Eyskens, Jose Ramos Horta, Lee Huan, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Wellington Koo, Benjamin Mkapa, Mikhail Saakashvili, Mohammad Musa Shafiq, Salim Ahmed Salim, Ernesto Samper, Tang Shaoyi, Abdul Zahir, Zhou Ziqi, Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, Sun Fo, Chen Gongbo, Nwafor Orizu Juan Bautista Sacasa, and T. V. Soong. |group="n"}}

Alumni of Columbia have occupied top positions in Wall Street and the rest of the business world. Notable members of the Astor family attended Columbia, while some recent business graduates include investor Warren Buffet, former CEO of PBS and NBC Larry Grossman, and chairman of Wal-Mart S. Robson Walton. Current CEO's of top Fortune 500 companies include James P. Gorman of Morgan Stanley, Robert J. Stevens of Lockheed Martin, Philippe Dauman of Viacom, Ursula Burns of Xerox, and Vikram Pandit of Citigroup.

In science and technology, Columbia alumni include: founder of IBM Herman Hollerith; inventor of FM radio Edwin Armstrong; inventor of nuclear submarine Hyman Rickover; scientists Stephen Jay Gould, Robert Millikan, and Michael Pupin; chief-engineer of the New York City subway William Barclay Parsons; philosophers Irwin Edman and Robert Nozick; and economist Milton Friedman

Many Columbia alumni have gone on to renowned careers in the arts, such as the composers Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Lorenz Hart, and Art Garfunkel. University alumni have also been very prominent in the film industry, with 25 different alumni winning a combined 30 Academy Awards, more than any other school in the world. Some notable Columbia alumni that have gone on to work in film include directors Sidney Lumet (''12 Angry Men'') and Kathryn Bigelow (''The Hurt Locker''), screenwriters Howard Koch (''Casablanca'') and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (''All About Eve''), and actors James Cagney and Ed Harris. Columbia alumni have made an indelible mark in the field of American poetry and literature, with such people as Jack Kerouac, one of the pioneers of the Beat Generation, and Langston Hughes, a seminal figure in the Harlem Renaissance, having both attended the University. Other notable writers who attended Columbia include authors Isaac Asimov, J.D. Salinger, Upton Sinclair, and the journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who was primarily known for his works in the American magazine Rolling Stone.

See also

References

Notes

Further reading

Robert A. McCaughey: ''Stand, Columbia: A History of Columbia University in the City of New York, 1754–2004'', Columbia University Press, 2003, ISBN 0231130082

''Living Legacies at Columbia'', ed. by Wm Theodore De Bary, Columbia University Press, 2006, ISBN 0231138849

External links

Official Athletics website

Category:Association of American Universities Category:Colonial Colleges Category:Ivy League Category:Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Category:National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities members Category:Educational institutions established in the 1750s Category:Organizations established in 1754 Category:1754 establishments in the Thirteen Colonies Category:Universities and colleges in New York City Category:McKim, Mead, and White buildings Category:Universities and colleges in New York Category:Rockefeller Center Category:New York in the American Revolution Category:Universities and colleges in Manhattan

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birth name	Mary Louise Streep
birth date	June 22, 1949
birth place	Summit, New Jersey, U.S.
spouse	Don Gummer(m.1978–present; 4 children)
children	4 (including Mamie Gummer and Grace Gummer)
lover	John Cazale(1976–78, his death)
occupation	Actress
years active	1971–present }}

Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress and singer who has worked in theatre, television, and film. From the 1970s until the present, she has been widely regarded as the most talented and respected film actress of her era.

Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's ''The Playboy of Seville'', before her screen debut in the television movie ''The Deadliest Season'' in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with ''Julia''. Both critical and commercial success came quickly with roles in ''The Deer Hunter'' (1978) and ''Kramer vs. Kramer'' (1979), the former giving Streep her first Oscar nomination and the latter her first win. She later won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in ''Sophie's Choice'' (1982) and ''The Iron Lady'' (2011).

Streep has received 17 Academy Award nominations, winning three, and 26 Golden Globe nominations, winning eight, more nominations than any other actor in the history of either award. Her work has also earned her two Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Cannes Film Festival award, five New York Film Critics Circle Awards, two BAFTA awards, an Australian Film Institute Award, five Grammy Award nominations, and a Tony Award nomination, amongst others. She was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2004.

Early life and background

Streep was born Mary Louise Streep in Summit, New Jersey. Her mother, Mary Wolf (née Wilkinson; 1915 - 2001), was a commercial artist and former art editor, and her father, Harry William Streep, Jr. (1910 - 2003), was a pharmaceutical executive. She has two brothers, Dana David and Harry William III. Her patrilineal ancestry originates in Loffenau, Germany, from where her second great-grandfather, Gottfried Streeb, emigrated to the United States, and where one of her ancestors served as mayor. Another line of her father's family was from Giswil, a small town in Switzerland. Her maternal ancestry originates in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, and partly traces back to 17th century immigrants from England. Her eighth great-grandfather, Lawrence Wilkinson, was one of the first Europeans to settle Rhode Island. Streep is also a distant relative of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, and records show that her family were among the first purchasers of land in the state.

She was raised a Presbyterian, and grew up in Bernardsville, New Jersey, where she attended Bernards High School. She had many school friends who were Catholic, and regularly attended Mass because she loved its rituals. She received her B.A., in Drama at Vassar College in 1971 (where she briefly received instruction from actress Jean Arthur), but also enrolled as an exchange student at Dartmouth College for a quarter before it became coeducational. She subsequently earned an M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama. While at Yale, she played a variety of roles onstage, from the glamorous Helena in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' to an eighty-year old woman in a wheelchair in a comedy written by then-unknown playwrights Christopher Durang and Albert Innaurato.

Career

Early career

Streep performed in several theater productions in New York and New Jersey after graduating from Yale School of Drama, including the New York Shakespeare Festival productions of ''Henry V'', ''The Taming of the Shrew'' with Raúl Juliá, and ''Measure for Measure'' opposite Sam Waterston and John Cazale, who became her lover and with whom she lived for three years. She starred on Broadway in the Brecht/Weill musical ''Happy End'', and won an Obie for her performance in the all-sung off-Broadway production of ''Alice at the Palace''.

Streep began auditioning for film roles, and later recalled an unsuccessful audition for Dino De Laurentiis for the leading role in ''King Kong''. De Laurentiis commented to his son in Italian, "She's ugly. Why did you bring me this thing?" and was shocked when Streep replied in fluent Italian. Streep's first feature film was ''Julia'' (1977), in which she played a small but pivotal role during a flashback scene. Streep was living in New York City with her lover, Cazale, who had been diagnosed with bone cancer. He was cast in ''The Deer Hunter'' (1978), and Streep was delighted to secure a small role because it allowed her to remain with Cazale for the duration of filming. She was not specifically interested in the part, commenting, "They needed a girl between the two guys and I was it."

She played a leading role in the television miniseries ''Holocaust'' (1978) as a German woman married to a Jewish artist in Nazi era Germany. She later explained that she had considered the material to be "unrelentingly noble", and had taken the role only because she had needed money. Streep travelled to Germany and Austria for filming while Cazale remained in New York. Upon her return, Streep found that Cazale's illness had progressed, and she nursed him until his death on March 12, 1978. She spoke of her grief and her hope that work would provide a diversion; she accepted a role in ''The Seduction of Joe Tynan'' (1979) with Alan Alda, later commenting that she played it on "automatic pilot", and performed the role of Katherine in ''The Taming of the Shrew'' for Shakespeare in the Park. With an estimated audience of 109 million, ''Holocaust'' brought a degree of public recognition to Streep, who was described in August 1978 as "on the verge of national visibility". She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie for her performance.

''The Deer Hunter'' (1978) was released a month later, and Streep was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

Streep played a supporting role in ''Manhattan'' (1979) for Woody Allen, later stating that she had not seen a complete script and was given only the six pages of her own scenes, and that she had not been permitted to improvise a word of her dialogue. Asked to comment on the script for ''Kramer vs. Kramer'' (1979), in a meeting with the producer Stan Jaffee, director Robert Benton and star Dustin Hoffman, Streep insisted that the female character was not representative of many real women who faced marriage breakdown and child custody battles, and was written as "too evil". Jaffee, Benton and Hoffman agreed with Streep, and the script was revised. In preparing for the part, Streep spoke to her own mother about her life as a mother and housewife with a career, and frequented the Upper East Side neighborhood in which the film was set. Benton allowed Streep to write her dialogue in two of her key scenes, despite some objection from Hoffman. Jaffee and Hoffman later spoke of Streep's tirelessness, with Hoffman commenting, "She's extraordinarily hardworking, to the extent that she's obsessive. I think that she thinks about nothing else but what she's doing."

Streep drew critical acclaim for her performance in each of her three films released in 1979: the romantic comedy ''Manhattan'', the political drama ''The Seduction of Joe Tynan'' and the family drama, ''Kramer vs. Kramer''. She was awarded the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress, National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress and National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress for her collective work in the three films. Among the awards won for ''Kramer vs. Kramer'' were the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.

1980s

After prominent supporting roles in two of the 1970s' most successful films, the consecutive winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture, ''The Deer Hunter'' and ''Kramer vs. Kramer'', and praise for her versatility in several supporting roles, Streep progressed to leading roles. Her first was ''The French Lieutenant's Woman'' (1981). A story within a story drama, the film paired Streep with Jeremy Irons as contemporary actors, telling their modern story as well as the Victorian era drama they were performing. A ''New York Magazine'' article commented that while many female stars of the past had cultivated a singular identity in their films, Streep was a "chameleon", willing to play any type of role. Streep was awarded a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her work.

Her next film, the psychological thriller, ''Still of the Night'' (1982) reunited her with Robert Benton, the director of ''Kramer vs. Kramer'', and co-starred Roy Scheider and Jessica Tandy. Vincent Canby, writing for ''The New York Times'', noted that the film was an homage to the works of Alfred Hitchcock, but that one of its main weaknesses was a lack of chemistry between Streep and Scheider, concluding that Streep "is stunning, but she's not on screen anywhere near long enough".

As the Polish holocaust survivor in ''Sophie's Choice'' (1982), Streep's emotional dramatic performance and her apparent mastery of a Polish accent drew praise. William Styron wrote the novel with Ursula Andress in mind for the part of Sophie, but Streep was very determined to get the role. After she obtained a pirated copy of the script, she went to Alan J. Pakula and threw herself on the ground begging him to give her the part. Streep filmed the "choice" scene in one take and refused to do it again, as she found shooting the scene extremely painful and emotionally exhausting. Among several notable acting awards, Streep won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. Roger Ebert said of her performance, "Streep plays the Brooklyn scenes with an enchanting Polish-American accent (she has the first accent I've ever wanted to hug), and she plays the flashbacks in subtitled German and Polish. There is hardly an emotion that Streep doesn't touch in this movie, and yet we're never aware of her straining. This is one of the most astonishing and yet one of the most unaffected and natural performances I can imagine."

She followed this success with a biographical film, ''Silkwood'' (1983), in which she played her first real-life character, the union activist Karen Silkwood. She discussed her preparation for the role in an interview with Roger Ebert and said that she had met with people close to Silkwood to learn more about her, and in doing so realized that each person saw a different aspect of Silkwood. Streep concentrated on the events of Silkwood's life and concluded, "I didn't try to turn myself into Karen. I just tried to look at what she did. I put together every piece of information I could find about her... What I finally did was look at the events in her life, and try to understand her from the inside."

Her next films were a romantic drama, ''Falling in Love'' (1984) opposite Robert De Niro, and a British drama, ''Plenty'' (1985). Roger Ebert said of Streep's performance in ''Plenty'' that she conveyed "great subtlety; it is hard to play an unbalanced, neurotic, self-destructive woman, and do it with such gentleness and charm... Streep creates a whole character around a woman who could have simply been a catalogue of symptoms."

''Out of Africa'' (1985) starred Streep as the Danish writer Karen Blixen and co-starred Robert Redford. A significant critical success, the film received a 63% "fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes. Streep co-starred with Jack Nicholson in her next two films, the dramas ''Heartburn'' (1986) and ''Ironweed'' (1987), in which she sang onscreen for the first time since the television movie, ''Secret Service'', in 1977. In ''A Cry in the Dark'' (1988), she played the biographical role of Lindy Chamberlain, an Australian woman who had been convicted of the murder of her infant daughter in which Chamberlain claimed her baby had been taken by a dingo. Filmed in Australia, Streep won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, a Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival, the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress and was nominated for several other awards for her portrayal of Chamberlain.

In ''She-Devil'' (1989), Streep played her first comedic film role, opposite Roseanne Barr. Richard Corliss, writing for ''Time,'' commented that Streep was the "one reason" to see the film and observed that it marked a departure from the type of role for which she had been known, saying, "Surprise! Inside the Greer Garson roles Streep usually plays, a vixenish Carole Lombard is screaming to be cut loose."

1990s

From 1984 to 1990, Streep won six People's Choice Awards for Favorite Motion Picture Actress and, in 1990, was named World Favorite.

In the 1990s, Streep continued to choose a great variety of roles, including a drug-addicted movie actress in a screen adaptation of Carrie Fisher's novel ''Postcards from the Edge'', with Dennis Quaid and Shirley MacLaine. Streep and Goldie Hawn had established a friendship and were interested in making a film together. After considering various projects, they decided upon ''Thelma and Louise'', until Streep's pregnancy coincided with the filming schedule, and the producers decided to proceed with Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis. They subsequently filmed the farcical black comedy, ''Death Becomes Her'', with Bruce Willis as their co-star. ''Time'''s Richard Corliss wrote approvingly of Streep's "wicked-witch routine" but dismissed the film as "''She-Devil'' with a make-over".

Biographer Karen Hollinger describes this period as a downturn in the popularity of Streep's films, which reached its nadir with the failure of ''Death Becomes Her'', attributing this partly to a critical perception that her comedies had been an attempt to convey a lighter image following several serious but commercially unsuccessful dramas, and more significantly to the lack of options available to an actress in her forties. Streep commented that she had limited her options by her preference to work in Los Angeles, close to her family, a situation that she had anticipated in a 1981 interview when she commented, "By the time an actress hits her mid-forties, no one's interested in her anymore. And if you want to fit a couple of babies into that schedule as well, you've got to pick your parts with great care."

Streep appeared with Glenn Close in the movie version of Isabel Allende's ''The House of the Spirits''; the screen adaptation of ''The Bridges of Madison County'' with Clint Eastwood; ''The River Wild''; ''Marvin's Room'' (with Diane Keaton and Leonardo DiCaprio); ''One True Thing''; and ''Music of the Heart'', in a role that required her to learn to play the violin, She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for "The Bridges of Madison County", "Music of the Heart" (where she plays the role of Roberta Guaspari) and "One True Thing".

2000s

Streep entered the 2000s with Steven Spielberg's ''A.I. Artificial Intelligence'', a science fiction film about a child-like android, played by Haley Joel Osment, uniquely programmed with the ability to love, voicing the Blue Fairy. The same year, Streep co-hosted the annual Nobel Peace Prize concert with Liam Neeson in Oslo, Norway, and began work on Spike Jonze's comedy-drama ''Adaptation'' (2002), in which she portrayed real-life journalist Susan Orlean. Lauded by critics and viewers alike, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, and won Streep her fourth Golden Globe in the Best Supporting Actress category. Also in 2002, Streep appeared alongside Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore in Stephen Daldry's ''The Hours'', based on the 1999 novel of the same title by Michael Cunningham. Focusing on three women of different generations whose lives are interconnected by the novel ''Mrs. Dalloway'' by Virginia Woolf, the film was generally well-received and won all three leading actresses a Silver Bear for Best Actress the following year.

thumb|right|upright|Streep in 2004 The following year, Streep had a cameo as herself in the Farrelly brothers comedy ''Stuck on You'' (2003) and reunited with Mike Nichols to star with Al Pacino and Emma Thompson in the HBO adaptation of Tony Kushner's six-hour play ''Angels in America'', the story of two couples whose relationships dissolve amidst the backdrop of Reagan Era politics. Streep, who was cast in four roles in the mini-series, received her second Emmy Award and fifth Golden Globe for her performance. In 2004, Streep was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award by the Board of Directors of the American Film Institute, and appeared in Jonathan Demme's moderately successful remake ''The Manchurian Candidate'', co-starring Denzel Washington, playing a U.S. senator and a manipulative, ruthless mother of a vice-presidential candidate. The same year, she played the supporting role of Aunt Josephine in ''Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events'' alongside Jim Carrey, based on the first three novels in Snicket's book series. The black comedy received generally favorable reviews from critics, and won the Academy Award for Best Makeup.

Streep was next cast in the 2005 comedy ''Prime'', directed by Ben Younger. In the film, she played Lisa Metzger, the Jewish psychoanalyst of a divorced and lonesome business-woman, played by Uma Thurman, who enters a relationship with Metzger's 23-year-old son (Bryan Greenberg). A modest mainstream success, it eventually grossed US$67.9 million internationally. In 2006, Streep, along with Lily Tomlin, portrayed the last two members of what was once a popular family country music act in Robert Altman's final film ''A Prairie Home Companion''. A comedic ensemble piece featuring Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline and Woody Harrelson, the film revolves around the behind-the-scenes activities at the long-running public radio show of the same name. The film grossed over US$26 million, the majority of which came from domestic markets. Commercially, Streep fared better with a role in ''The Devil Wears Prada'' (2006), a loose screen adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel of the same name. Portraying the powerful and demanding fashion magazine editor and boss of a recent college graduate (played by Anne Hathaway) Miranda Priestly, Streep's performance drew rave reviews from critics and later earned her many award nominations, including her record-setting 14th Oscar bid, as well as another Golden Globe. Upon its commercial release, the film became Streep's biggest commercial success yet, grossing more than US$326.5 million worldwide.

In 2007, Streep was cast in four films. She portrayed a wealthy university patron in Chen Shi-zheng's much-delayed feature drama ''Dark Matter'' (2007), a film about a Chinese science graduate student who becomes violent after dealing with academic politics at a U.S. university. Inspired by the events of the 1991 University of Iowa shooting, and initially scheduled for a 2007 release, producers and investors decided to shelve ''Dark Matter'' out of respect for the Virginia Tech massacre in April 2007. The drama received negative to mixed reviews upon its limited 2008 release. Streep played a U.S. government official, who investigates an Egyptian foreign national in Washington, D.C., suspected of terrorism in the Middle East, in the political thriller ''Rendition'' (2007), directed by Gavin Hood. Keen to get involved into a thriller film, Streep welcomed the opportunity to star in a film genre for which she was not usually offered scripts and immediately signed on to the project. Upon its release, ''Rendition'' was less commercially successful, and received mixed reviews.

Also in 2007, Streep had a short role alongside Vanessa Redgrave, Glenn Close and her eldest daughter Mamie Gummer in Lajos Koltai's drama film ''Evening'', based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Susan Minot. Switching between the present and the past, it tells the story of a bedridden woman, who remembers her tumultuous life in the mid-1950s. The film was released to lukewarm reactions by critics, who called it "beautifully filmed, but decidedly dull [and] a colossal waste of a talented cast." Streep's last film of 2007 was Robert Redfords ''Lions for Lambs'', a film about the connection between a platoon of United States soldiers in Afghanistan, a U.S. senator, a reporter, and a California college professor.

In 2008, Streep found major commercial success when she starred in Phyllida Lloyd's ''Mamma Mia!'', a film adaptation of the musical of the same name, based on the songs of Swedish pop group ABBA. Co-starring Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, and Colin Firth, Streep played a single mother and a former backing singer, whose daughter (Seyfried), a bride-to-be who never met her father, invites three likely paternal candidates to her wedding on an idyllic Greek island. An instant box office success, ''Mamma Mia!'' became Streep's highest-grossing film to date, with box office receipts of US$602.6 million, also ranking it first among the highest-grossing musical films of all-time. Nominated for another Golden Globe, Streep's performance was generally well-received by critics, with Wesley Morris of the ''Boston Globe'' commenting "the greatest actor in American movies has finally become a movie star." Streep's other film of 2008 was ''Doubt'' featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis. A drama revolving around the stern principal nun (Streep) of a Bronx Catholic school in 1964 who brings charges of pedophilia against a popular priest (Hoffman), the film became a moderate box office success, but was hailed by many critics as one of the best of 2008. The film received five Academy Awards nominations, for its four lead actors and for Shanley's script.

In 2009, Streep played chef Julia Child in Nora Ephron's ''Julie & Julia'', co-starring Amy Adams and Stanley Tucci. The first major motion picture based on a blog, it contrasts the life of Child in the early years of her culinary career with the life of young New Yorker Julie Powell (Adams), who aspires to cook all 524 recipes in Child's cookbook ''Mastering the Art of French Cooking'' in 365 days, a challenge she described on her popular blog, ''The Julie/Julia Project'', that would make her a published author. The same year, Streep also starred in Nancy Meyers' romantic comedy ''It's Complicated'', with Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. She also received nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for both of these films and won the award for the former. Streep later received her 16th Oscar nomination for ''Julie & Julia''. She also lent her voice to Mrs. Felicity Fox in the stop-motion film ''Fantastic Mr. Fox''.

2010s

In July 2010, it was announced that Streep will star in an upcoming comedy entitled ''Mommy & Me'' alongside Tina Fey who will play her daughter. The film is being directed by Stanley Tucci. Streep portrayed Margaret Thatcher in ''The Iron Lady'', a look at the Prime Minister during the Falklands War and her years in retirement. For this role, Streep won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Accents and dialects

Streep is well known for her ability to imitate foreign and domestic accents, from Danish in ''Out of Africa'' (1985), to British RP in ''Plenty'' (also 1985), ''The French Lieutenant's Woman'' and ''The Iron Lady'' (2011), to Italian in ''The Bridges of Madison County'' (1995), to a Midwestern dialect in ''A Prairie Home Companion'' (2006). In ''A Cry in the Dark'' (1988), most critics were impressed with Streep's performance and ability to master an Australian accent. For her role in the film ''Sophie's Choice'' (1982), she took a language course in Polish for four months, in order to accurately display a Polish accent. In ''The Iron Lady'', she reproduced the vocal style of Margaret Thatcher, from the time before she became Britain's Prime Minister, and after she had taken elocution lessons to change her pitch, pronunciation and delivery. Despite the accolades accorded to her, Streep has responded to praise with the assertion that adopting accents is an element that she simply considers an obvious part of her task in creating characters. When asked whether accents help her get into character, she responded, "I'm always baffled by this question... How could I play that part and talk like me?" When questioned as to how she reproduces different accents, Streep replied, "I listen."

Theatre

In New York City, she appeared in the 1976 Broadway double bill of Tennessee Williams' ''27 Wagons Full of Cotton'' and Arthur Miller's ''A Memory of Two Mondays''. For the former, she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Her other early Broadway credits include Anton Chekhov's ''The Cherry Orchard'' and the Bertolt Brecht-Kurt Weill musical ''Happy End'' in which she originally appeared off-Broadway at the Chelsea Theater Center. She received Drama Desk Award nominations for both productions. Once Streep's film career flourished, she took a long break from stage acting.

In July 2001, Streep returned to the stage for the first time in more than twenty years, playing Arkadina in the Public Theater's revival of Anton Chekhov's ''The Seagull''. The staging, directed by Mike Nichols, also featured Kevin Kline, Natalie Portman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Marcia Gay Harden, and John Goodman.

In August and September 2006, she starred onstage at The Public Theater's production of ''Mother Courage and Her Children'' at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. The Public Theater production was a new translation by playwright Tony Kushner (''Angels in America''), with songs in the Weill/Brecht style written by composer Jeanine Tesori (''Caroline, or Change''); veteran director George C. Wolfe was at the helm. Streep starred alongside Kevin Kline and Austin Pendleton in this three-and-a-half-hour play in which she sang and appeared in almost every scene.

Music

After Streep appeared in ''Mamma Mia!'', her rendition of the song "Mamma Mia" rose to popularity in the Portuguese music charts, where it peaked at #8 in October 2008.

At the 35th People's Choice Awards, her version of ''Mamma Mia'' won an award for "Favorite Song From A Soundtrack". In 2008, Streep was nominated for a Grammy Award (her fifth nomination) for her work on the ''Mamma Mia!'' soundtrack.

Philanthropy

Streep is the spokesperson for the National Women's History Museum, to which she has donated a significant amount of money (including her fee for ''The Iron Lady'') and hosted numerous events.

Personal life

Streep lived with actor John Cazale for three years until his death in March 1978. Streep married sculptor Don Gummer on September 15, 1978. They have four children: Henry "Hank" Wolfe Gummer (born November 13, 1979), Mary Willa "Mamie" Gummer (born August 3, 1983), Grace Jane Gummer (born May 9, 1986), and Louisa Jacobson Gummer (born June 12, 1991). Both Mamie and Grace are actresses. Hank is a musician who performs under the name Henry Wolfe.

When asked if religion plays a part in her life, in an interview in 2009, Streep replied, "I follow no doctrine. I don't belong to a church or a temple or a synagogue or an ashram." Streep does not rule out the possibility that God exists, “I do have a sense of trying to make things better. Where does that come from?”

Awards

Streep holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations of any actor, having been nominated seventeen times since her first nomination in 1979 for ''The Deer Hunter'' (fourteen for Best Actress and three for Best Supporting Actress). Streep is also the most-nominated performer for a Golden Globe Award (with 26 nominations) and, with her overall eighth win for ''The Iron Lady'' in 2012, has won the most Golden Globes (excluding special awards).

In 1983, Yale - from which Streep had graduated in 1975 - was the first university to award her an honorary degree, a Doctorate of Fine Arts. In 1998, Women in Film awarded Streep with the Crystal Award for outstanding women who have helped expand the role of women within the entertainment industry.

In 2003, Streep was awarded an honorary César Award by the French ''Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma.'' In 2004, at the Moscow International Film Festival, Streep was honored with the Stanislavsky Award for the outstanding achievement in the career of acting and devotion to the principles of Stanislavsky's school. Also in 2004, Streep received the AFI Life Achievement Award. In 2009, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts by Princeton University. In 2010, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Arts degree by Harvard University.

Streep received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1998, and May 27, 2004 was proclaimed "Meryl Streep Day" by Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields.

In 2008, Streep was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

On December 4, 2011 (program aired on CBS-TV on December 27, 2011), Streep received the 2011 Kennedy Center Honor (along with Neil Diamond, Yo-Yo Ma, Sonny Rollins, and Barbara Cook).

On February 12, 2012, Streep received the 2012 BAFTA award for best actress for the movie ''The Iron Lady''.

On February 14, 2012, Streep received the Honorary Golden Bear at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival. She previously won the Berlinale Camera at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival in 1999.

On February 26, 2012, Streep received the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performances as Margaret Thatcher in the British biopic film, ''The Iron Lady''.

Filmography

! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1978	''The Deer Hunter''	Linda
1979		Jill	Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress (also for The Seduction of Joe Tynan and Kramer vs. Kramer)National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress (also for The Seduction of Joe Tynan and Kramer vs. Kramer)National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress (also for The Seduction of Joe Tynan and Kramer vs. Kramer)Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
1979	''Kramer vs. Kramer''	Joanna Kramer	Academy Award for Best Supporting ActressGolden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion PictureKansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressLos Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress (also for The Seduction of Joe Tynan and Manhattan)National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress (also for Manhattan and The Seduction of Joe Tynan)National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress (also for The Seduction of Joe Tynan and Manhattan)New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress (and also The Seduction of Joe Tynan)Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1981		Sarah/Anna	BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleGolden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaLos Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Academy Award for Best Actress
1982		Sophie Zawistowski	Academy Award for Best ActressBoston Society of Film Critics Award for Best ActressGolden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaKansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressLos Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNational Board of Review Award for Best ActressNational Society of Film Critics Award for Best ActressNew York Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressNominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1983	''Silkwood''	Karen Silkwood	Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressNominated - Academy Award for Best ActressNominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1985		Karen Blixen
1987		Helen Archer	Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress
1988	''A Cry in the Dark''		Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNew York Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressBest Actress Award (Cannes Film Festival)Nominated - Academy Award for Best ActressNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1990		Suzanne Vale
1995		Francesca Johnson	Nominated - Academy Award for Best ActressNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
1998	''One True Thing''	Kate Gulden	Nominated - Academy Award for Best ActressNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaNominated - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion PictureNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
1999	''Music of the Heart''	Roberta Guaspari	Nominated - Academy Award for Best ActressNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
2002		Susan Orlean	Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActressFlorida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting ActressGolden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion PictureSatellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion PictureSilver Bear for Best ActressSoutheastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting RoleNominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated - London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the YearNominated - Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated - Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated - Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best CastNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2002		Clarissa Vaughan	Silver Bear for Best Actress in Berlin International Film Festival (with Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman)Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaNominated - Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated - Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best CastNominated - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion PictureNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2004		Eleanor Shaw	Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting RoleNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion PictureNominated - Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
2006		Miranda Priestly	Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyLondon Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the YearNational Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting ActressOnline Film Critics Society Award for Best ActressSatellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyNominated - Academy Award for Best ActressNominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - MTV Movie Award for Best VillainNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
2008		Donna	Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressPhoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best ActressWashington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyNominated - London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year
2008		Sister Aloysius Beauvier	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressKansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressNational Board of Review Award for Best CastPhoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best ActressScreen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading RoleWashington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Academy Award for Best ActressNominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best CastNominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaNominated - London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the YearNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2009	''Julie & Julia''	Julia Child	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best ActressBroadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressGolden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyKansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressNew York Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressPhoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best ActressSatellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or ComedySoutheastern Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated -Academy Award for Best ActressNominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the YearNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
2009		Jane Adler	Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
2011		Margaret Thatcher	Academy Award for Best ActressAACTA International Award for Best ActressBAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleDenver Film Critics Society Award for Best ActressGolden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressNew York Film Critics Online Award for Best ActressLondon Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressUK's Annual Regional Film Awards for Best Actress Nominated - Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award for Best ActressNominated - Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award for Actress Defying Age and AgeismNominated - Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award for Female Icon AwardNominated - Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress (runner-up) Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best ActressNominated - Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best ActresNominated - Iowa Film Critics Awards for Best ActressNominated - Irish Film & Television Award for Best International ActressNominated - National Society of Film Critics Award for Best ActressNominated - Online Film Critics Society Award for Best ActressNominated - Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture DramaNominated - St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressNominated - Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best ActressNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

See also

List of people from New Jersey

List of American actresses

List of actors with two or more Academy Awards in acting categories

References

Bibliography

Napoleon, Davi (1991). ''Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater.'' Includes discussion of Streep's performance in Robert Kalfin's production of ''Happy End'' at the Chelsea Theater and on Broadway. Iowa State University Press. ISBN-0-8138-1713-7.

''Finding Herself: The Prime of Meryl Streep'' by Molly Haskell, ''Film Comment'', May/June 2008.

External links

Official web site

Meryl Streep at BAFTA forty-minute webcast, January 2009

Meryl Streep at Emmys.com

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Name	Mahmoud Ahmadinejadمحمود احمدی‌نژاد
Office	6th President of Iran
1blankname	Supreme Leader
1namedata	Ali Khamenei
Vicepresident	Parviz DavoodiMohammad-Reza Rahimi
Term start	3 August 2005
Predecessor	Mohammad Khatami
Office2	Mayor of Tehran
Term start2	20 June 2003
Term end2	3 August 2005
Deputy2	Ali Saeedlou
Predecessor2	Mohammad-Hassan Malekmadani
Successor2	Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf
Office3	Governor of Ardabil
Term start3	1 May 1993
Term end3	28 June 1997
Predecessor3	Hossein Taheri (East Azerbaijan)
Successor3	Javad Negarandeh
Birth date	October 28, 1956
Birth place	Aradan, Iran
Party	Alliance of Builders (2003–present)
Otherparty	Islamic Society of Engineers (1990–2005)
Spouse	Azam Farahi (1981–present)
Children	MehdiAlirezaFatemeh
Residence	Sa'dabad Palace (Official)Gisha (Private)
Alma mater	Iran University of Science and Technology
Profession	Civil engineer
Religion	Twelver Shia Islam
Signature	Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signature.svg
Signature alt	Signature of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Website	Official website }}

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (, ''Mahmūd Ahmadinezhād'' , ; born 28 October 1956) is the sixth and current President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the main political leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, a coalition of conservative political groups in the country. An engineer and teacher from a poor background, Ahmadinejad joined the Office for Strengthening Unity after the Islamic Revolution. Appointed a provincial governor, he was removed after the election of President Mohammad Khatami and returned to teaching. Tehran's council elected him mayor in 2003. He took a religious hard line, reversing reforms of previous moderate mayors. His 2005 presidential campaign, supported by the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, garnered 62% of the runoff election votes, and he became President on 3 August 2005. His second presidency term ends on August 3, 2013. He is not eligible to run for another term under the current Iranian constitution.

Ahmadinejad is a controversial figure both within Iran and internationally. He has been criticized domestically for his economic lapses and disregard for human rights. He launched a gas rationing plan in 2007 to reduce the country's fuel consumption, and cut the interest rates that private and public banking facilities could charge. He supports Iran's nuclear energy program. His election to a second term in 2009 was widely disputed and caused widespread protests domestically and drew significant international criticism. In 2011 the presence of a so-called "deviant current" among his aides and supporters led to the arrest of several of them.

Early life

Ahmadinejad was born near Garmsar in the village of Aradan, in Semnan province. His father, Ahmad, was an ironworker, grocer, barber, blacksmith and religious Shi'a who taught the Qur'an. His mother, Khanom, was a Seyyede, an honorific title given to those believed to be direct bloodline descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Ahmadinejad's father changed his name from "Saborjhian" or "Sabaghian" when Ahmadinejad was four years old to avoid discrimination when the family moved to Tehran, as the rural name indicated a lowly social standing. Sabor is Persian for thread painter, a once common occupation within the Semnan carpet industry. Ahmadinejad was chosen as it means from the race of Ahmad, one of the names given to Muhammad.

In 1976, Ahmadinejad took Iran's national university entrance contests. According to his autobiography, he was ranked 132nd out of 400,000 participants that year, and soon enrolled in the Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST) as an undergraduate student of civil engineering. He earned his PhD (1997) in transportation engineering and planning from Iran University of Science and Technology, located at Tehran, when he was the Mayor of Ardabil Province, located at the north-west of the country.

Supporters of Ahmadinejad consider him a "simple man" that leads a "modest" life. As president, he wanted to continue living in the same house in Tehran his family had been living in, until his security advisers insisted that he move. Ahmadinejad had the antique Persian carpets in the Presidential palace sent to a carpet museum, and opted instead to use inexpensive carpets. He is said to have refused the V.I.P. seat on the Presidential plane, and that he eventually replaced it with a cargo plane instead. Also upon gaining Iran's presidency, Ahmadinejad held his first cabinet meeting in the Imam Reza shrine at Mashhad, an act perceived as "pious".

Administrative and academic careers

Some details of Ahmadinejad's life during the 1980s are not publicly known, but it is known that he held a number of administrative posts in the province of West Azerbaijan, Iran.

Many reports say that after Saddam Hussein invaded Iran, Ahmadinejad joined the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution and served in their intelligence and security apparatus, but his advisor Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi says "He has never been a member or an official member of the Revolutionary Guards", having been a Basiji-like volunteer instead.

Ahmadinejad was accepted to a Master of Science program at his alma mater in 1986. He joined the faculty there as a lecturer in 1989, and in 1997 received his doctorate in civil engineering and traffic transportation planning.

Embassy siege

Shortly after being elected president, some western media outlets published claims that Ahmadinejad was among the students who stormed the US embassy in Tehran, sparking the Iran hostage crisis. This claim has been denied by the Iranian government, the Iranian opposition as well as a CIA investigation on the matter.

Early political career

After the Islamic Revolution, Ahmadinejad became a member of the Office for Strengthening Unity, an organization developed to prevent students from sympathizing or allying with the budding Mojahedin-e Khalq.

He first took political office as unelected governor to both Maku and Khoy in West Azarbaijan Province during the 1980s. He eventually became an advisor to the governor general of Kurdistan Province for two years. During his doctoral studies at Tehran, he was appointed governor general of Ardabil Province from 1993 until Mohammad Khatami removed him in 1997 when he returned to teaching.

Mayor of Tehran

In 2003, a 12 percent turnout elected conservative candidates from the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran to the City Council of Tehran. The Council appointed Ahmadinejad mayor.

As mayor, he reversed changes made by previous moderate and reformist mayors. He put religious emphasis on the activities of cultural centres they had founded, publicised the separation of elevators for men and women in the municipality offices, and suggested that people killed in the Iran–Iraq War be buried in major city squares of Tehran. He also worked to improve the traffic system and put an emphasis on charity, such as distributing free soup to the poor.

After his election to the presidency, Ahmadinejad's resignation as the Mayor of Tehran was accepted on 28 June 2005. After two years as mayor, Ahmadinejad was one of 65 finalists for World Mayor in 2005, selected from 550 nominees, only nine of them from Asia. He was among three strong candidates for the top ten list, but his resignation made him ineligible.

Presidency

2005 campaign

Ahmadinejad was not widely known when he entered the presidential election campaign as he had never run for office before, (he had only been mayor of Tehran for two years and had been appointed not elected), although he had already made his mark in Tehran for rolling back earlier reforms. He was/is a member of the Central Council of the Islamic Society of Engineers, but his key political support is inside the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran (''Abadgaran'' or ''Developers''). He was also helped by support from supreme leader Ali Khamanei, who some described Ahmadinejad as a "protege" of.

Ahmadinejad generally sent mixed signals about his plans for his presidency, perhaps to attract both religious conservatives and the lower economic classes. His campaign slogan was: "It's possible and we can do it".

In the campaign, he took a populist approach. He emphasized his own modest life, and compared himself with Mohammad Ali Rajai, Iran's second president. Ahmadinejad said he planned to create an "exemplary government for the people of the world" in Iran. He was a "principlist", acting politically based on Islamic and revolutionary principles. One of his goals was "putting the petroleum income on people's tables", meaning Iran's oil profits would be distributed among the poor.

Ahmadinejad was the only presidential candidate who spoke out against future relations with the United States. He told Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting the United Nations was "one-sided, stacked against the world of Islam." He opposed the veto power of the UN Security Council's five permanent members: "It is not just for a few states to sit and veto global approvals. Should such a privilege continue to exist, the Muslim world with a population of nearly 1.5 billion should be extended the same privilege." He defended Iran's nuclear program and accused "a few arrogant powers" of trying to limit Iran's industrial and technological development in this and other fields.

In his second round campaign, he said, "We didn't participate in the revolution for turn-by-turn government....This revolution tries to reach a world-wide government." He spoke of an extended program using trade to improve foreign relations, and called for greater ties with Iran's neighbours and ending visa requirements between states in the region, saying that "people should visit anywhere they wish freely. People should have freedom in their pilgrimages and tours."

Ahmadinejad described Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a senior cleric from Qom as his ideological and spiritual mentor. Mesbah founded the Haghani School of thought in Iran. He and his team strongly supported Ahmadinejad's 2005 presidential campaign.

2005 election

Ahmadinejad won 62 percent of the vote in the run-off poll against Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei authorized his presidency on 3 August 2005. Ahmedinejad kissed Khamenei's hand during the ceremony to show his loyalty.

2005 cabinet appointments

Ministry	! Minister
Agriculture	Mohammadreza Eskandari
Commerce	Masoud Mirkazemi
Communication and Information Technology	Mohammad Soleimani
Ministry of Cooperatives (Iran)	Cooperatives	Mohammad Abbasi
Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance	Culture and Islamic Guidance	Hossein Saffar Harandi
Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics	Defense and Armed Forces Logistics	Mostafa Mohammad Najjar
Economy and Financial Affairs	Hossein Samsami
Ministry of Education (Iran)	Education	Alireza Aliahmadi
Energy	Parviz Fattah
Minister of Foreign Affairs (Iran)	Foreign Affairs	Manoucher Mottaki
Ministry of Health and Medical Education	Health and Medical Education	Kamran Bagheri Lankarani
Housing and Urban Development	Mohammad Saeedikia
Industries and Mines	Aliakbar Mehrabian
Ministry of Intelligence of Iran	Intelligence	Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejehei
Ministry of Interior (Iran)	Interior	Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi
Ministry of Justice (Iran)	Justice	Gholam Hossein Elham
Labour and Social Affairs	Mohammad Jahromi
Ministry of Petroleum of Iran	Petroleum	Rostam Ghassemi
Roads and Transportation	Hamid Behbahani
Science, Research, and Technology	Mohammad Mehdi Zahedi
Welfare and Social Security	Abdolreza Mesri

Iran's President is constitutionally obliged to obtain confirmation from the parliament for his selection of ministers. Ahmadinejad presented a short-list at a private meeting on 5 August, and his final list on 14 August. The Majlis rejected all of his cabinet candidates for the oil portfolio and objected to the appointment of his allies in senior government office. The Majlis approved a cabinet on 24 August. The ministers promised to meet frequently outside Tehran and held their first meeting on 25 August in Mashhad, with four empty seats for the unapproved nominees.

2006 Councils and Assembly of Experts election

Ahmadinejad’s team lost the 2006 city council elections, and his spiritual mentor, Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, was ranked sixth on the country's Assembly of Experts. In the first nationwide election since Ahmadinejad became President, his allies failed to dominate election returns for the Assembly of Experts and local councils. Results, with a turnout of about 60%, suggested a voter shift toward more moderate policies. According to an editorial in the Kargozaran independent daily newspaper, "The results show that voters have learned from the past and concluded that we need to support.. moderate figures." An Iranian political analyst said that "this is a blow for Ahmadinejad and Mesbah Yazdi's list."

2009 presidential election

On 23 August 2008, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei announced that he "sees Ahmadinejad as president in the next five years," a comment interpreted as indicating support for Ahmadinejad's reelection. 39,165,191 ballots were cast in the election on 12 June 2009, according to Iran's election headquarters. Ahmadinejad won 24,527,516 votes, (62.63%). In second place, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, won 13,216,411 (33.75%) of the votes. The election drew unprecedented public interest in Iran.

2009 Iranian election protests

, the election results remain in dispute with both Mousavi and Ahmadinejad and their respective supporters who believe that electoral fraud occurred during the election. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei formally endorsed Ahmadinejad as President on 3 August 2009, and Ahmadinejad was sworn in for a second term on 5 August 2009. Iran's Constitution stipulates term limits of two terms for the office of President. Several Iranian political figures appeared to avoid the ceremony. Former presidents Mohammad Khatami, and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is currently head of the Expediency Discernment Council, along with opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, did not attend the ceremony. Opposition groups asked protesters on reformist websites and blogs to launch new street demonstrations on the day of the inauguration ceremony. On inauguration day, hundreds of riot police met opposition protesters outside parliament. After taking the oath of office, which was broadcast live on Iranian state television, Ahmadinejad said that he will "protect the official faith, the system of the Islamic revolution and the constitution". France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States announced that they would not send the usual letters of congratulation.

2009 cabinet appointments

Ministry	! Minister
Agriculture in Iran	Agriculture	Sadeq Khalilian
	Mehdi Ghazanfari
Communications in Iran	Communication and Information Technology	Reza Taqipour
Ministry of Cooperatives (Iran)	Cooperatives	Mohammad Abbasi
Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance	Culture and Islamic Guidance	Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini
Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics	Defense and Armed Forces Logistics	Ahmad Vahidi
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance (Iran)	Economy and Financial Affairs	Shamseddin Hosseini
Ministry of Education (Iran)	Education	Hamid-Reza Haji Babaee
Energy in Iran	Energy	Majid Namjoo
Minister of Foreign Affairs (Iran)	Foreign Affairs	Manouchehr Mottaki
Ministry of Health and Medical Education	Health and Medical Education	Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi
Construction in Iran	Housing and Urban Development	Abdolreza Sheikholeslami
Industry of Iran	Industries and Mines	Aliakbar Mehrabian
Ministry of Intelligence of Iran	Intelligence	Heydar Moslehi
Ministry of Interior (Iran)	Interior	Mostafa Mohammad Najjar
Ministry of Justice (Iran)	Justice	Morteza Bakhtiari
Labor and tax laws in Iran	Labour and Social Affairs	Ali Nikzad
Ministry of Petroleum of Iran	Petroleum	Masoud Mir Kazemi
Transport in Iran	Roads and Transportation	Hamid Behbahani
Science and technology in Iran	Science, Research, and Technology	Kamran Daneshjoo
Economy of Iran#Labor and welfare	Welfare and Social Security	Sadeq Mahsouli

Ahmadinejad announced controversial ministerial appointments for his second term. Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei was briefly appointed as first vice president, but opposed by a number of Majlis members and by the intelligence minister, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i. Mashaei followed orders to resign. Ahmadinejad then appointed Mashaei as chief of staff, and fired Mohseni-Eje'i.

On July 26, 2009, Ahmadinejad's government faced a legal problem after he sacked four ministers. Iran's constitution (Article 136) stipulates that, if more than half of its members are replaced, the cabinet may not meet or act before the Majlis approves the revised membership. The Vice Chairman of the Majlis announced that no cabinet meetings or decisions would be legal, pending such a re-approval.

The main list of 21 cabinet appointments was announced on August 19, 2009. On September 4, Majlis approved 18 of the 21 candidates, and rejected three, including two women. Sousan Keshavarz, Mohammad Aliabadi, and Fatemeh Ajorlou were not approved by Majlis for the Ministries of Education, Energy, and Welfare and Social Security respectively. Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi is the first woman approved by Majlis as a minister in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Domestic policy

Economic policy

In Ahmadinejad's first four years as president, Iran's real GDP reflected growth of the economy. Inflation and unemployment have also decreased under Ahmadinejad due to better economic management and ending the unsustainable spending and borrowing patterns of previous administrations . Ahmadinejad has increased spending by 25 percent and has supported subsidies for food and petrol. He also initially refused a gradual increase of petrol prices, saying that after making necessary preparations, such as a development of public transportation system, the government will free up petrol prices after five years. Interest rates were cut by presidential decree to below the inflation rate. One unintended effect of this stimulation of the economy has been the bidding up of some urban real estate prices by two or three times their pre-Ahmadinejad value by Iranians seeking to invest surplus cash and finding few other safe opportunities. The resulting increase in the cost of housing has hurt poorer, non-property owning Iranians, the putative beneficiaries of Ahmadinejad's populist policies. The Management and Planning Organisation, a state body charged with mapping out long-term economic and budget strategy, was broken up and its experienced managers were fired.

In June 2006, 50 Iranian economists wrote a letter to Ahmadinejad that criticized his price interventions to stabilize prices of goods, cement, government services, and his decree issued by the High Labor Council and the Ministry of Labor that proposed an increase of workers' salaries by 40 percent. Ahmadinejad publicly responded harshly to the letter and denounced the accusations. Ahmadinejad has called for "middle-of-the-road" compromises with respect to Western-oriented capitalism and socialism. Current political conflicts with the United States have caused the central bank to fear increased capital flight due to global isolation. These factors have prevented an improvement of infrastructure and capital influx, despite high economic potential. Among those that did not vote for him in the first election, only 3.5 percent said they would consider voting for him in the next election. Mohammad Khoshchehreh, a member of Iranian parliament that campaigned for Ahmadinejad, said that his government "has been strong on populist slogans, but weak on achievement." President Ahmadinejad has changed almost all of his economic ministers, including oil, industry and economy, since coming to power in 2005. In an interview with Fars News Agency on April 2008, Davoud Danesh Jaafari who acted as minister of economy in President Ahmadinejad’s cabinet, harshly criticized Ahmadinejad’s economic policy: "During my time, there was no positive attitude towards previous experiences or experienced people and there was no plan for the future. Peripheral issues which were not of dire importance to the nation were given priority. Most of the scientific economic concepts like the effect of liquidity on inflation were put in question." In response to these criticisms, Ahmadinejad accused his minister of not being "a man of justice" and declared that the solution to Iran’s economic problem is "the culture of martyrdom". In May 2008, the Petroleum minister of Iran admitted that the government illegally invested 2 billion dollars to import petrol in 2007. At Iranian parliament, he also mentioned that he simply followed the president's order.

While his government had 275 thousand billion toman oil income, the highest in Iranian history, Ahmadinejad’s government had the highest budget deficit since the Iranian revolution.

During his presidency, Ahmadinejad launched a gasoline rationing plan to reduce the country's fuel consumption. He also instituted cuts in the interest rates that private and public banking facilities could charge. He issued a directive that the Management and Planning Organization be affiliated to the government. In May 2011 Ahmadinejad announced that he would temporarily run the Oil Ministry.

Family planning and population policy

In October 2006, Ahmadinejad began calling for the scrapping of Iran's existing birth control policies, which discouraged Iranian couples from having more than two children. He told MPs that Iran could cope with 50 million more people than the current 70 million. In November 2010 he urged Iranians to marry and reproduce earlier, "We should take the age of marriage for boys to 20 and for girls to about 16 and 17." His remarks have drawn criticism and been called ill-judged at a time when Iran was struggling with surging inflation and rising unemployment, estimated at around 11 percent. Ahmadinejad’s call was reminiscent of a call for Iranians to have more children made by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979. The policy increased Iran's population by 16 million in seven years but was eventually reversed in response to the resultant economic strain.

In 2008, the government sent the "Family Protection Bill" to the Iranian parliament. Women's rights activists criticized the bill for removing protections from women, such as the requirement that a husband obtain his wife's consent before bringing another wife into the family. Women's rights in Iran are more religiously based than those in secular countries.

Housing

The first legislation to emerge from his newly formed government was a 12 trillion rial (US$1.3 billion) fund called ''"Reza's Compassion Fund"'', named after Shi'a Imam Ali al-Rida. Ahmadinejad's government said this fund would tap Iran's oil revenues to help young people get jobs, afford marriage, and buy their own homes. The fund also sought charitable donations, with a board of trustees in each of Iran's 30 provinces. The legislation was a response to the cost of urban housing, which is pushing up the national average marital age (currently around 25 years for women and 28 years for men). In 2006 the Iranian parliament rejected the fund. However, Ahmadinejad ordered the administrative council to execute the plan.

Human rights

According to a report by Human Rights Watch, "Since President Ahmadinejad came to power, treatment of detainees has worsened in Evin Prison as well as in detention centers operated clandestinely by the Judiciary, the Ministry of Information, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps." Again according to Human Rights Watch, "Respect for basic human rights in Iran, especially freedom of expression and assembly, deteriorated in 2006. The government routinely tortures and mistreats detained dissidents, including through prolonged solitary confinement." Human Rights Watch described the source of human rights violations in contemporary Iran as coming from the Judiciary, accountable to Ali Khamenei, and from members directly appointed by Ahmadinejad.

Responses to dissent have varied. Human Rights Watch writes that "the Ahmadinejad government, in a pronounced shift from the policy under former president Mohammed Khatami, has shown no tolerance for peaceful protests and gatherings." In December 2006, Ahmadinejad advised officials not to disturb students who engaged in a protest during a speech of his at the Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran, although speakers at other protests have included among their complaints that there had been a crackdown on dissent at universities since Ahmadinejad was elected.

In April 2007, the Tehran police, which is under Khamenei's supervision, began a crackdown on women with "improper hijab." This led to criticism from associates of Ahmadinejad.

Universities

In 2006, the Ahmadinejad government reportedly forced numerous Iranian scientists and university professors to resign or to retire. It has been referred to as "second cultural revolution". The policy has been said to replace old professors with younger ones. Some university professors received letters indicating their early retirement unexpectedly. In November 2006, 53 university professors had to retire from Iran University of Science and Technology.

In 2006, Ahmadinejad's government applied a 50 percent quota for male students and 50 percent for female students in the university entrance exam for medicine, dentistry and pharmacy. The plan was supposed to stop the growing presence of female students in the universities. In a response to critics, Iranian minister of health and medical education, Kamran Bagheri Lankarani argued that there are not enough facilities such as dormitories for female students. Masoud Salehi, president of Zahedan University said that presence of women generates some problems with transportation. Also, Ebrahim Mekaniki, president of Babol University of Medical Sciences, stated that an increase in the presence of women will make it difficult to distribute facilities in a suitable manner. Bagher Larijani, the president of Tehran University of Medical Sciences made similar remarks. According to Rooz Online, the quotas lack a legal foundation and are justified as support for "family" and "religion."

December 2006 student protest

On 11 December 2006, some students disrupted a speech by Ahmadinejad at the Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic) in Tehran. According to the Iranian Student News Agency, students set fire to photographs of Ahmadinejad and threw firecrackers. The protesters also chanted "death to the dictator." It was the first major public protest against Ahmadinejad since his election. In a statement carried on the students' Web site, they announced that they had been protesting the growing political pressure under Ahmadinejad, also accusing him of corruption, mismanagement, and discrimination. The statement added that "the students showed that despite vast propaganda, the president has not been able to deceive academia." It was also reported that some students were angry about the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust.

In response to the students' slogans, the president said: "We have been standing up to dictatorship so that no one will dare to establish dictatorship in a millennium even in the name of freedom. Given the scars inflicted on the Iranian nation by agents of the US and British dictatorship, no one will ever dare to initiate the rise of a dictator." It was reported that even though the protesters broke the TV cameras and threw hand-made bombs at Ahmadinejad, the president asked the officials not to question or disturb the protesters. In his blog, Ahmadinejad described his reaction to the incident as "a feeling of joy" because of the freedom that people enjoyed after the revolution.

One thousand students also protested the day before to denounce the increased pressure on the reformist groups at the university. One week prior, more than two thousand students protested at Tehran University on the country's annual student day, with speakers saying that there had been a crackdown on dissent at universities since Ahmadinejad was elected.

Nuclear program

Ahmadinejad has been a vocal supporter of Iran's nuclear program, and has insisted that it is for peaceful purposes. He has repeatedly emphasized that building a nuclear bomb is not the policy of his government. He has said that such a policy is "illegal and against our religion." He also added at a January 2006 conference in Tehran that a nation with "culture, logic and civilization" would not need nuclear weapons, and that countries that seek nuclear weapons are those that want to solve all problems by the use of force. In a 2008 interview Ahmadinejad elaborated that countries striving to obtain nuclear weapons are not politically progressive nations and those who possess them and continually make new generations of such bombs are "even more backward".

In April 2006, Ahmadinejad announced that Iran had successfully refined uranium to a stage suitable for the nuclear fuel cycle. In a speech to students and academics in Mashhad, he was quoted as saying that Iran's conditions had changed completely as it had become a nuclear state and could talk to other states from that stand. On 13 April 2006, Iranian news agency, IRNA, quoted Ahmadinejad as saying that the peaceful Iranian nuclear technology would not pose a threat to any party because "we want peace and stability and we will not cause injustice to anyone and at the same time we will not submit to injustice." Nevertheless, Iran's nuclear policy under Ahmadinejad's administration has received much criticism, spearheaded by the United States and Israel. The accusations include that Iran is striving to obtain nuclear arms and developing long-range firing capabilities—and that Ahmadinejad issued an order to keep UN inspectors from freely visiting the nation's nuclear facilities and viewing their designs, in defiance of an IAEA resolution. Following a May 2009 test launch of a long-range missile, Ahmadinejad was quoted as telling the crowd that with its nuclear program, Iran was sending the West a message that "the Islamic Republic of Iran is running the show."

Despite Ahmadinejad's vocal support for the program, the office of the Iranian president is not directly responsible for nuclear policy. It is instead set by the Supreme National Security Council. The council includes two representatives appointed by the Supreme Leader, military officials, and members of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government, and reports directly to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons in 2005. Khamenei has criticized Ahmadinejad's "personalization" of the nuclear issue.

Ahmadinejad vowed on February 2008, that Iran will not be held back from developing its peaceful nuclear program and has stated that at least 16 different peaceful uses for nuclear technology have so far been identified. Ahmadinejad has stressed the importance of the right to peaceful nuclear development. Iranian opposition leader, Mousavi, has even stated that giving up the country's nuclear program would be "irreparable" and that the Iranian people support the nuclear program. "No one in Iran will accept suspension," Mousavi has said, adding that if elected, his policy would be to work to provide "guarantees" that Tehran's nuclear activities would never divert to non-peaceful aims.

In October 2009 the United States, France and Russia proposed a U.N.-drafted deal with Iran regarding its nuclear program, in an effort to find a compromise between Iran's stated need for a nuclear reactor and the concerns of those who are worried that Iran harbors a secret intent on developing a nuclear weapon. After some delay in responding, on October 29, Ahmadinejad seemed to change his tone towards the deal. "We welcome fuel exchange, nuclear co-operation, building of power plants and reactors and we are ready to co-operate," he said in a live broadcast on state television. However, he added that Iran would not retreat "one iota" on its right to a sovereign nuclear program.

Domestic criticism and controversies

Alleged corruption

Ahmadinejad has been criticized for attacking private "plunderers" and "corrupt officials," while engaging in "cronyism and political favouritism". Many of his close associates have been appointed to positions for which they have no obvious qualifications, and "billion dollar no-bid contracts" have been awarded to the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), an organization with which he is strongly associated.

Other statements

In June 2007, Ahmadinejad was criticized by some Iranian parliament members over his remark about Christianity and Judaism. According to Aftab News Agency, Ahmadinejad stated: "In the world, there are deviations from the right path: Christianity and Judaism. Dollars have been devoted to the propagation of these deviations. There are also false claims that these [religions] will save mankind. But Islam is the only religion that [can] save mankind." Some members of Iranian parliament criticized these remarks as being fuels to religious war.

Conservative MP Rafat Bayat has accused Ahmadinejad for a decline in observance of the required hijab for women, calling him "not that strict on this issue". Ahmadinejad has been also accused of indecency by people close to Rafsanjani, after he publicly kissed the hand of a woman who used to be his school teacher.

The UN and football stadiums

Two statements that have brought criticism from some religious authorities concern his speech at the United Nations, and the attendance of women at football matches. In a visit to group of Ayatollahs in Qom after returning from his 2005 speech to the UN General Assembly, Ahmadinejad stated he had "felt a halo over his head" during his speech and that a hidden presence had mesmerized the unblinking audience of foreign leaders, foreign ministers, and ambassadors. According to at least one source (Hooman Majd), this was offensive to the conservative religious leaders because an ordinary man cannot presume a special closeness to God or any of the Imams, nor can he imply the presence of the Mahdi.

In another statement the next year, Ahmadinejad proclaimed (without consulting the clerics beforehand), that women be allowed into football stadiums to watch male football clubs compete. This proclamation "was quickly overruled" by clerical authorities, one of whom, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Fazel Lankarani "refused for weeks to meet with President Ahmadinejad" in early 2007.

Iran constitution conflict

In 2008, a serious conflict emerged between the Iranian President and the head of parliament over three laws approved by Iranian parliament: "the agreement for civil and criminal legal cooperation between Iran and Kyrgyzstan", "the agreement to support mutual investment between Iran and Kuwait", and "the law for registration of industrial designs and trademarks". The conflict was so serious that the Iranian leader stepped in to resolve the conflict. Ahmadinejad wrote a letter to parliament speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, furiously denouncing him for an "inexplicable act" in bypassing the presidency by giving the order to implement legislation in an official newspaper. President Ahmadinejad accused the head of parliament of violating Iranian constitutional law. He called for legal action against the Parliament speaker. Haddad-Adel responded to Ahmadinejad accusing him of using inappropriate language in his remarks and letters.

Ali Kordan

In August 2008, Dr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, appointed Ali Kordan as Iran's interior minister. Kordan's appointment has been criticized by Iranian parliamentarians, media and analysts after it came to light that a doctoral degree allegedly awarded to Ali Kordan was fabricated, and that the putative issuer of the degree, Oxford University, had no record of Ali Kordan receiving any degree from the University. It was also revealed that he had been jailed in 1978 for moral charges. Fabrication of legal documents is punishable in Iranian law with one to three years of imprisonment and in the case of government officials, the maximum sentence (three years) is demanded.

In November 2008, President Ahmadinejad announced that he was against impeachment of Ali Kordan by Iranian parliament. He refused to attend the parliament on the impeachment day. Ali Kordan was expelled from Iranian interior ministry by Iranian parliament on 4 November 2008. 188 MPs voted against Ali Kordan. An impeachment of Kordan would push Ahmadinejad close to having to submit his entire cabinet for review by parliament, which is led by one of his chief political opponents. Iran's constitution requires that step if more than half the cabinet ministers are replaced, and Ahmadinejad has replaced nine of 21.

Conflict with Parliament

On February 2009 after Supreme Audit Court of Iran reported that $1.058 billion of surplus oil revenue in the (2006–2007) budget hasn't been returned by the government to the national treasury, Ali Larijani, Iran's parliamentary speaker, called for further investigations to make sure the missing funds are returned to the treasury as soon as possible. Ahmadinejad criticized the National Audit Office for what he called its "carelessness", saying the report "incites the people" against the government. The head of the parliament Energy Commission, Hamidreza Katouzian, reported: The government spent $5 billion to import fuel, about $2 billion more than the sum parliament had authorized. Katouzian quoted Iran's Oil Minister, Gholam-Hossein Nozari, as saying that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had ordered the extra purchase.

In May 2011 several members of parliament threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings against Ahmadinejad after his merger of eight government ministries and the firing of three ministers without parliament’s consent. According to the Majles News Web site, MP Mohammad Reza Bahonar stated, "legal purging starts with questions, which lead to warnings and end with impeachment." On May 25 parliament voted to investigate another allegation, that Ahmadinejad had committed election irregularities by giving cash to up to nine million Iranians before the 2009 presidential elections. The vote came within hours after the allegations appeared in several popular conservative news sites associated with supreme leader Ali Khamenei, suggesting the supreme leader supported the investigation. The disputes were seen as part of the clash between Ahmadinejad and other conservatives and former supporters, including supreme leader Khamenei, over what the conservatives see as Ahmadinejad's confrontational policies and abuse of power.

Relations with Supreme Leader

Early in his presidency, Ahmadinejad was sometimes described as "enjoy[ing] the full backing" of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and even as being his "protege." In Ahmadinejad's 2005 inauguration the supreme leader allowed Ahmadinejad to kiss his hand and cheeks in what was called "a sign of closeness and loyalty," and after the 2009 election fully endorsed Ahmadinejad against protesters. However as early as January 2008 signs of disagreement between the two men developed over domestic policies, and by 2010-11 several sources detected a "growing rift" between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei. The disagreement has been described as centering on Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a top adviser and close confidant of Ahmadinejad and opponent of "greater involvement of clerics in politics", who was First Vice President of Iran until being ordered to resign from the cabinet by the supreme leader. In 2009 Ahmadinejad dismissed Intelligence minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i, an opponent of Mashaei. In April 2011, another Intelligence minister, Heydar Moslehi, resigned after being asked to by Ahmadinejad, but was reinstated by the supreme leader within hours. Ahmadinejad declined to officially back Moslehi's reinstatement for two weeks and in protest engaged in an "11-day walkout" of cabinet meetings, religious ceremonies, and other official functions. Ahmadinejad's actions led to angry public attacks by clerics, parliamentarians and military commanders, who accused him of ignoring orders from the supreme leader. Conservative opponents in parliament launched an "impeachment drive" against him, four websites with ties to Ahmadinejad reportedly were "filtered and blocked", and several people "said to be close" to the president and Mashaei (such as Abbas Amirifar and Mohammed Sharif Malekzadeh) were arrested on charges of being "magicians" and invoking djinns. On 6 May 2011 it was reported that Ahmadinejad had been given an ultimatum to accept the leader's intervention or resign, and on 8 May he "apparently bowed" to the reinstatement, welcoming back Moslehi to a cabinet meeting. The events have been said to have "humiliated and weakened" Ahmadinejad, though the president has denied that there was any rift between the two, and according to the semiofficial Fars News Agency stated that his relationship with the supreme leader "is that of a father and a son."

Foreign relations

During Ahmadinejad's tenure as President of Iran the foreign policy of the country took a different approach from the previous administration. Relations with the West generally soured while relations with other parts of the world, including Africa and Latin America, were on the ascendance. In light of the calls for sanctions on Iran for its nuclear weapons programme, Ahmadinejad and his foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, traveled extensively throughout the two regions, as well as hosted other leaders. Relations with the ALBA states, and Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, in particular, were most strengthened. Relations with America during the Bush administration and Israel were weakened.

Ahmadinejad is an outspoken critic of the United States, Israel, and the United Kingdom.

Israel and Palestine

He abides by Iran's long-standing policy of refusing to recognize Israel as a legitimate state.

He was embroiled in controversy in regards to statements he made about the Holocaust and for commenting that "the occupying regime" would, according to various translations, be eliminated, or "vanish from the pages of time." The ''New York Times'' reported this as a call for the destruction of the State of Israel when the phrase was translated as "wiped off the map". American scholar, public intellectual, and historian of the modern Middle East and South Asia, Juan Cole says the word "map" doesn't even appear in the quote. It has also been claimed that he said that "Israel's regime will be wiped off the map", not the actual state.

He advocates "free elections" for the region, and believes Palestinians need a stronger voice in the region's future. Criticism of him in the West has been coupled with accusations of describing the Holocaust as a myth and of statements influenced by "classic anti-Semitic ideas," which has led to accusations of anti-Semitism, though he has denied these accusations, saying that he "respects Jews very much" and that he was not "passing judgment" on the Holocaust.

On al-Quds Day in September 2010 criticized the Palestinian Authority over its president's decision to renew direct peace talks with Israel saying the talks are "stillborn" and "doomed to fail", urging the Palestinians to continue armed resistance to Israel. He said that Mahmoud Abbas had no authority to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, fired back, saying, Ahmadinejad "does not represent the Iranian people,..., is not entitled to talk about Palestine, or the President of Palestine"

Lebanon

In October 2010, Ahmadinejad plans to visit Lebanon. The ''Jerusalem Post'' reported that he plans to throw a rock towards Israel "to demonstrate his hatred". Hizbullah operatives will provide him with security throughout his visit, and a rock to chuck. According to the Kuwaiti newspaper ''Al-Anbaa'', Syrian President Bashar al-Assad advised Ahmadinejad not to visit southern Lebanon. In response, Ahmadinejad expounded the "strategic importance for him because southern Lebanon is Iran's border with Israel".

United States

In September 2010 he caused yet-another controversy at the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly by claiming that most people believed the United States government was behind the 9/11 attacks and later called for an inquiry, stating: "The fact-finding mission can shed light on who the perpetrators were, who is al-Qaeda... where does it exist? Who was it backed by and supported? All these should come to light." The speech triggered a mass walkout, and the U.S. president Barack Obama described the claims as "inexcuseable", "offensive" and "hateful". In 2010, Ahmadinejad reiterated the 9/11 conspiracy, and wrote:

"Establishing an independent and impartial committee of investigation, which would determine the roots and causes of the regrettable event of 9/11, is the demand of all the peoples of the region and the world. [...] Any opposition to this legal and human demand means that 9/11 was premeditated in order to achieve the goals of occupation and of confrontation with the nations.

He made similar comments in 2011.

Ahmadinejad was criticized for his claims in an article appearing in Al-Qaeda's magazine. The article claimed Ahmadinejad was jealous of Al-Qaeda.

Personal life

He was married to Fatemeh Sadat Farahi on 12 June 1981 in Tehran. Farahi was a classmate of Ahmadinejad when he studied at the Iran University of Science and Technology. They have three children, including one daughter, Fatemeh, and two sons, Mehdi and Alireza. His older son, Mehdi, married the daughter of Ahmadinejad's chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei in 2007, and his younger son, Alireza, is married to the niece of former military general, Mahmoud Kaveh. All of his children studied at the Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic). His son in law is Mehdi Khorshidi.

See also

2006 Iranian sumptuary law controversy

Advisors to the president: Hamid Mowlana, Mohammad-Ali Ramin, Ali Akbar Javanfekr

Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi

Politics of Iran

References

Further reading

"Referral of Iranian President Ahmadinejad on the Charge of Incitement to Commit Genocide" by Justus Reid Weiner, Esq., with Amb. Meir Rosenne, Prof. Elie Wiesel, Amb. Dore Gold, Irit Kohn, Adv., Amb. Eytan Bentsur, and MK Dan Naveh

Ali Rahnema, ''Superstition as Ideology in Iranian Politics: From Majlesi to Ahmadinejad'', Cambridge University Press, 2011 (Reviewed in The Montréal Review), ISBN: 978-0-521-18221-8

External links

Official website of the President of Iran

Blog of President Ahmadinejad

Biography at CIDOB Foundation

Video Archive of President Ahmadinejad at ''Irannegah.com''

People Who Mattered: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ''Time'', 16 December 2006

The Results As They Came In, Andrew Sullivan, ''The Atlantic'', 13 June 2009

Category:1956 births Category:9/11 conspiracy theorists Category:Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran politicians Category:Current national leaders Category:Holocaust deniers Category:Holocaust denial in Iran Category:Iranian anti-communists Category:Iranian civil engineers Category:Iranian governors Category:Islamic Society of Engineers politicians Category:Living people Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Category:Mayors of Tehran Category:People from Semnan Province Category:Presidents of Iran Category:Shi'a politicians Category:Iran University of Science and Technology alumni Category:Iran University of Science and Technology faculty

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name	Jeffrey Sachs
color	lightsteelblue
birth date	November 05, 1954
birth place	Detroit, Michigan
nationality	United States
alma mater	Harvard University
institution	Columbia University
field	Political economics, International Development
influences	John Maynard Keynes
opposed	William Easterly, Daron Acemoğlu, Dambisa Moyo
influenced	Nouriel Roubini, Jared Diamond
contributions	Shock therapy, Millennium Villages Project }}

Jeffrey David Sachs (; born November 5, 1954, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American economist and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. One of the youngest economics professors in the history of Harvard University, Sachs became known for his role as an adviser to Eastern European and developing country governments in the implementation of so-called economic shock therapy during the transition from communism to a market system or during periods of economic crisis. Some of his recommendations have been considered controversial. Subsequently he has been known for his work on the challenges of economic development, environmental sustainability, poverty alleviation, debt cancellation, and globalization.

Sachs is the Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs and a Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia's School of Public Health. He is Special Adviser to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, and the founder and co-President of the Millennium Promise Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending extreme poverty and hunger. From 2002 to 2006, he was Director of the United Nations Millennium Project's work on the Millennium Development Goals, eight internationally sanctioned objectives to reduce extreme poverty, hunger, and disease by the year 2015. Since 2010 he has also served as a Commissioner for the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, which leverages broadband technologies as a key enabler for social and economic development. He is a member of the scientific committee of the Fundacion IDEAS, Spain's Socialist Party's think tank.

He has authored numerous books, including ''The End of Poverty'' and ''Common Wealth'', both New York Times bestsellers. He has been named one of ''Time Magazine'''s "100 Most Influential People in the World" twice, in 2004 and 2005.

Biography

Academic career

Sachs was raised in Oak Park, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Oak Park High School. He attended Harvard College, where he received his B.A. ''summa cum laude'' in 1976. He went on to receive his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard, and was invited to join the Harvard Society of Fellows while still a Harvard graduate student. In 1980, he joined the Harvard faculty as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1982. A year later, at the age of 29, Sachs became a Full Professor of economics with tenure at Harvard.

During the next 19 years at Harvard, he became the Galen L. Stone Professor of International Trade, the Director of the Harvard Institute for International Development at the Kennedy School of Government (1995–1999), and the Director of the Center for International Development (1999–2002).

After the Center for International Development failed to attract sustainable funding or broad scholarly involvement, Sachs resigned from Harvard in March 2002 to become the Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York City. He is currently the Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and he is also a professor for Columbia's Department of Economics and Department of Health Policy and Management. His classes are taught at the School of International and Public Affairs, the Mailman School of Public Health, and his course "Challenges of Sustainable Development" is taught at the undergraduate level.

Work on post-communist economies

Sachs is known for his work as an economic adviser to governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union. A trained macroeconomist, he advised a number of national governments in the transition from communism to market economies.

In 1985, Bolivia was undergoing hyperinflation and was unable to pay back its debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Sachs, an economic adviser to the Bolivian government at the time, drew up an extensive plan, later known as shock therapy, to drastically cut inflation by liberalizing the Bolivian market, ending government subsidies, eliminating quotas, and linking the Bolivian economy to the US Dollar. After Sachs' plan was implemented, inflation fell from 11,750% to 15% per year from 1985 to 1987.

In 1990, the Polish government introduced shock therapy to break from communism. Sachs and ex-IMF economist David Lipton advised the rapid conversion of all property and assets from public to private ownership. After initial economic shortages and inflation, prices in Poland eventually stabilized.

In late 1991, the Russian government invited Harvard to give advice on reproducing the Polish experience. Harvard economist Andrei Shleifer advised President Boris Yeltsin on privatization and macroeconomic issues during the early stages of Russia's reforms. Sachs resigned shortly thereafter.

Work on global economic development

More recently, Sachs has turned to global issues of economic development, poverty alleviation, health and aid policy, and environmental sustainability. He has written extensively on climate change, disease control, and globalization, and is one of the world's leading experts on sustainable development.

In his 2005 work, ''The End of Poverty'', Sachs wrote "Africa's governance is poor because Africa is poor." According to Sachs, with the right policies and key interventions, extreme poverty — defined as living on less than $1 a day — can be eradicated within 20 years. India and China serve as examples, with the latter lifting 300 million people out of extreme poverty during the last two decades. Sachs believes a key element to accomplishing this is raising aid from $65 billion in 2002 to $195 billion a year by 2015. He emphasizes the role of geography and climate, with much of Africa suffering from being landlocked and disease-prone. However, he stresses that these problems can be overcome.

Sachs suggests that with improved seeds, irrigation, and fertilizer, the crop yields in Africa and other places with subsistence farming can be increased from 1 ton/hectare to 3-5 tons/hectares. He reasons that increased harvests would significantly increase the income of subsistence farmers, thereby reducing poverty. Sachs does not believe that increased aid is the only solution. He also supports establishing credit and microloan programs, which are often lacking in impoverished areas. Sachs has also advocated the distribution of free insecticide-treated bed nets to combat malaria. The economic impact of malaria has been estimated to cost Africa US$12 billion per year. Sachs estimates that malaria can be controlled for US$3 billion per year, thus suggesting that anti-Malaria projects would be an economically justified investment.

From 2002 to 2006, Sachs was the Director of the UN Millennium Project and Special Advisor to then Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals. Sachs founded the Millennium Villages Project, a plan dedicated to ending extreme poverty in various parts of sub-Saharan Africa through targeted agricultural, medical, and educational interventions. Along with philanthropist Ray Chambers, Sachs founded Millennium Promise, a nonprofit organization, to help the Earth Institute fund and operate the Millennium Villages Project.

Now a Special Adviser to current Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Sachs is still a leading advocate for the Millennium Development Goals, frequently meeting with foreign dignitaries and heads of state. He has also become a close friend of international celebrities Bono and Angelina Jolie, both of whom have traveled to Africa with Sachs to witness the progress of the Millennium Villages.

Sachs has been a consistent critic of the IMF and its policies around the world. He has blasted the international bankers for what he sees as a pattern of ineffective investment strategies.

Criticisms

One of Sachs' strongest critics is William Easterly, a professor of economics at New York University. Easterly reproached ''The End of Poverty'' in his review for ''The Washington Post'', and Easterly's 2006 book ''White Man's Burden'' is an even more thorough rebuttal of Sachs' argument that poor countries are stuck in a "poverty trap" from which there is no escape, except by massively scaled-up foreign aid, though Sachs himself has clearly emphasized the need for a complex, multi-faceted, clinical and unique approach to economic development, of which increased and responsible foreign aid is nearly always a necessary but insufficient part. Easterly presents statistical evidence that he claims proves that many emerging markets attained their higher status without large amounts of foreign aid as Sachs proposes.

Another Sachs critic is Amir Attaran, a scientist and lawyer who holds the Canada Research Chair in Law, Population Health and Global Development at the University of Ottawa. Sachs and Attaran have worked closely as colleagues, including coauthoring a famous study in ''The Lancet'' documenting the dearth of foreign aid money to fight HIV/AIDS in the 1990s, which led to the creation of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. However, Sachs and Attaran part company in their opinion of the Millennium Development Goals, and Attaran argued in a paper published in ''PLoS Medicine'' and an editorial in the ''New York Times'' that the United Nations has misled people by setting specific, but immeasurable, targets for the MDGs (for example, to reduce maternal mortality or malaria). Sachs dismissed that view in a reply to ''PLoS Medicine'' by saying that only a handful of the MDGs are immeasurable, but Attaran then cited the United Nations' own data analysis (which the UN subsequently blocked from public access) showing that progress on a very large majority of the MDGs is never measured.

Sachs has also been criticized by leftists for having an overly neoliberal perspective on the economy. Nancy Holmstrom and Richard Smith pointed out that, in advising implementation of his shock therapy on the collapsing Soviet Union, Sachs "supposed the transition to capitalism would be a natural, virtually automatic economic process: start by abandoning state planning, free up prices, promote private competition with state-owned industry, and sell off state industry as fast as possible…". They go on to cite the drastic decreases in industrial output over the ensuing years, a nearly halving of the country's GDP and of personal incomes, a doubling of the suicide rate, and a skyrocketing unemployment rate. ''The Lancet'' has recently reported that rapid privatization of the Soviet Union caused a 12.8% death rate increase among males in just two years, a claim that ''The Economist'' attributed to alcoholism, though ''The Lancet'' article attributed the rise in alcoholism to changes in the economy.

Accolades and affiliations

Sachs is the recipient of many awards and honors. In 2004 and 2005, he was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine. He was also named one of the "500 Most Influential People in the Field of Foreign Policy" by the World Affairs Councils of America.

In February 2002, ''Nature Magazine'' stated that Sachs "has revitalized public health thinking since he brought his financial mind to it." In 1993 he was cited in the ''New York Times Magazine'' as "probably the most important economist in the world." In 1994, ''Time Magazine'' called him "the world's best-known economist." In 1997, the French magazine ''Le Nouvel Observateur'' cited Sachs as one of the world's 50 most important leaders on globalization.

In 2005, he received the Sargent Shriver Award for Equal Justice. In 2007, Sachs was awarded the Padma Bhushan, a high civilian honor bestowed by the Government of India. Also in 2007, he received the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution International Advocate for Peace Award as well as the Centennial Medal from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for his contributions to society.

From 2000 to 2001, Sachs was Chairman of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health of the World Health Organization, and from 1999 to 2000 he served as a member of the International Financial Institution Advisory Commission established by the U.S. Congress. Sachs has been an adviser to the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Health Organization, the International Monetary Fund, and the United Nations Development Program. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Harvard Society of Fellows; the Fellows of the World Econometric Society; the Brookings Panel of Economists; the National Bureau of Economic Research; and the Board of Adviser's of the Chinese Economists Society, among other international organizations.

Sachs has received honorary degrees from Connecticut College; Lehigh University; Pace University; the State University of New York; Cracow University of Economics; Ursinus College; Whitman College; the Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Ohio Wesleyan University; the College of the Atlantic; Southern Methodist University; Simon Fraser University; McGill University; Southern New Hampshire University; St. John's University; Iona College; University of St. Gallen in Switzerland; the Lingnan College of Hong Kong; and the University of Economics Varna in Bulgaria.

Sachs is first holder of the Royal Professor Ungku Aziz Chair in Poverty Studies at the Centre for Poverty and Development Studies at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 2007-2009. In addition, he holds an honorary professorship at the Universidad del Pacifico in Peru. He has lectured at the London School of Economics, the University of Oxford, and Yale University, as well as in Tel Aviv and Jakarta.

In early 2007, the ''Sachs for President Draft Committee'' was formed to encourage Sachs to run for President of the United States in the 2008 election.

In September 2008, ''Vanity Fair'' magazine ranked Sachs 98th on its list of 100 members of the New Establishment.

In July 2009, Sachs became a member of the SNV Netherlands Development Organisation's International Advisory Board.

Publications

Sachs is the author of hundreds of academic articles and many books, including two New York Times bestsellers: ''The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time'' (Penguin, 2005) and ''Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet'' (Penguin, 2008).

He currently writes a monthly foreign affairs column for Project Syndicate, a nonprofit association of newspapers around the world that is circulated in 145 countries. He is also a frequent contributor to major publications such as the ''Financial Times'', ''Scientific American'', and ''Time Magazine''.

Sachs is a frequent contributor to ''The Huffington Post'' where he writes commentary about aid issues such as G20 outcomes, as well as addressing his critics such as Dambisa Moyo and William Easterly.

Selected works

Sachs, Jeffrey (2008). ''Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet'' Penguin Press HC ISBN 978-1-59420-127-1

Humphreys, Macartan, Sachs, Jeffrey, and Stiglitz, Joseph (eds.). "Escaping the Resource Curse" Columbia University Press ISBN 978-0-231-14196-3

Sachs, Jeffrey (2005). ''The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time'' Penguin Press HC ISBN 1-59420-045-9

Sachs, Jeffrey (2003). ''Macroeconomics in the Global Economy'' Westview Press ISBN 0-631-22004-6

Sachs, Jeffrey (2002). ''A New Global Effort to Control Malaria (Science)'', Vol. 298, October 4, 2002

Sachs, Jeffrey (2002). ''Resolving the Debt Crisis of Low-Income Countries (Brookings Papers on Economic Activity)'', 2002:1

Sachs, Jeffrey (2001). '' The Strategic Significance of Global Inequality (The Washington Quarterly)'', Vol. 24, No. 3, Summer 2001

Sachs, Jeffrey (1997). ''Development Economics'' Blackwell Publishers ISBN 0-8133-3314-8

Sachs, Jeffrey and Pistor, Katharina. (1997). ''The Rule of Law and Economic Reform in Russia (John M. Olin Critical Issues Series (Paper))'' Westview Press ISBN 0-8133-3314-8

Sachs, Jeffrey (1994). ''Poland's Jump to the Market Economy (Lionel Robbins Lectures)'' MIT Press ISBN 0-262-69174-4

Sachs, Jeffrey (1993). ''Macroeconomics in the Global Economy'' Prentice Hall ISBN 0-13-102252-0

Sachs, Jeffrey (ed) (1991). ''Developing Country Debt and Economic Performance, Volume 1 : The International Financial System (National Bureau of Economic Research Project Report)'' University of Chicago Press ISBN 0-226-73332-7

Sachs, Jeffrey and Warwick McKibbin'' Global Linkages: Macroeconomic Interdependence and Co-operation in the World Economy'', Brookings Institution, June, 277 pages. (ISBN 0-8157-5600-3)

Sachs, Jeffrey (ed) (1989). ''Developing Country Debt and the World Economy (National Bureau of Economic Research Project Report)'' University of Chicago Press ISBN 0-226-73338-6

Bruno, Michael and Sachs, Jeffrey (1984), "Stagflation in the World Economy"

Personal

Sachs lives in New York City with his wife Sonia Ehrlich Sachs, a pediatrician. They have three children: Lisa, Adam, and Hannah Sachs.

See also

Gro Harlem Brundtland

Millennium Development Goals

Millennium Promise Alliance

Millennium Villages Project

Shock therapy (economics)

The Earth Institute at Columbia University

United Nations Millennium Project

References

External links

Official

Earth Institute at Columbia University

Other

A Bridge for the Carmakers (Washington Post, 2008-11-16).

Podcast, University of Sydney, Economics for a Crowded Planet Public lecture, Sydney Ideas, July 14, 2008

Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, on BUniverse, Boston University's video lecture archive.

Jeffrey Sach's Reith lectures hosted by the Royal Society in London, during April and May 2007

Article on Jeff Sachs in the Yale Economic Review

Interview on PBS' Commanding Heights

Interview on The Colbert Report, March 2006

Economics for a Crowded Planet (video)

Jeffrey Sachs ''Charlie Rose'' interviews

Audio/Video recording of Jeffrey Sachs lecture as part of the University of Chicago World Beyond the Headlines series.

Sachs addresses Harvard Law students in the ''Harvard Law Record''

Asia Society Video: Jeffrey Sachs on Water Security Issues in Asia April 17, 2009

Jeffrey Sachs Speaker Biography on the World Business Forum where Sachs is a featured speaker for the 2009 event

Audio: Jeffrey Sachs in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion show ''The Forum''

Category:1954 births Category:Living people Category:People from Detroit, Michigan Category:People from Oakland County, Michigan Category:International finance economists Category:Development economists Category:American economists Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Harvard University faculty Category:Columbia University faculty Category:American people of German descent Category:United Nations officials Category:Development specialists Category:International development Category:Recipients of the Padma Bhushan Category:Green thinkers

bn:জেফ্রি স্যাক্স bs:Jeffrey Sachs cs:Jeffrey Sachs de:Jeffrey Sachs es:Jeffrey Sachs eo:Jeffrey Sachs fr:Jeffrey Sachs la:Galfridus Sachs nl:Jeffrey Sachs ja:ジェフリー・サックス no:Jeffrey Sachs pl:Jeffrey Sachs pt:Jeffrey Sachs ru:Сакс, Джеффри sk:Jeffrey Sachs fi:Jeffrey Sachs sv:Jeffrey Sachs tr:Jeffrey Sachs zh:傑佛瑞·薩克斯

!honorific-prefix	The Honorable
Name	Joseph Stiglitz
Honorific-suffix	ForMemRS FBA
Order	17th Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors
Term start	1995
Term end	1997
President	Bill Clinton
Predecessor	Laura Tyson
Successor	Janet Yellen
Office2	World Bank Chief Economist
Term start2	1997
Term end2	2000
Preceded2	Michael Bruno
Succeeded2	Nicholas Stern
Birth date	February 09, 1943
Birth place	Gary, Indiana
Party	Democratic
Spouse	Anya Schiffrin
Alma mater	Amherst CollegeMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Profession	Economist }}

{{infobox economist | school tradition	New Keynesian economics | color darkorange | field Macroeconomics, Public Economics, Information Economics | influences John Maynard Keynes, Robert Solow | opposed | influenced Paul Krugman, Jason Furman | contributions Screening, Taxation, Unemployment | repec_prefixe |repec_idpst33 }}

Joseph Eugene Stiglitz, ForMemRS, FBA, (born February 9, 1943) is an American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979). He is also the former Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank. He is known for his critical view of the management of globalization, free-market economists (whom he calls "free market fundamentalists") and some international institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

In 2000, Stiglitz founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD), a think tank on international development based at Columbia University. Since 2001, he has been a member of the Columbia faculty, and has been a University Professor since 2003. He also chairs the University of Manchester's Brooks World Poverty Institute and is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. Stiglitz is also an honorary professor at Tsinghua University School of Public Policy and Management and a member of the Executive and Supervisory Committee (ESC) of CERGE-EI. Stiglitz is one of the most frequently cited economists in the world.

Biography

Stiglitz was born in Gary, Indiana, to Jewish parents, Charlotte and Nathaniel Stiglitz. From 1960 to 1963, he studied at Amherst College, where he was a highly active member of the debate team and President of the Student Government. He went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for his fourth year as an undergraduate, where he later pursued graduate work. His undergraduate degree was awarded from Amherst College. From 1965 to 1966, he moved to the University of Chicago to do research under Hirofumi Uzawa who had received an NSF grant. He studied for his PhD from MIT from 1966 to 1967, during which time he also held an MIT assistant professorship. The particular style of MIT economics suited him well - simple and concrete models, directed at answering important and relevant questions. From 1966 to 1970 he was a research fellow at the University of Cambridge: he arrived at Fitzwilliam House as a Fulbright Scholar in 1965 and then won a Tapp Junior Research Fellowship at Gonville and Caius College. In subsequent years, he held academic positions at Yale (1970–1974), Stanford (1974–1976, 1988–2001), Oxford (1976–1979), and Princeton (1979–1988). Stiglitz is now a Professor at Columbia University, with appointments at the Business School, the Department of Economics and the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), and is editor of ''The Economists' Voice'' journal with J. Bradford DeLong and Aaron Edlin. He also gives classes for a double-degree program between Sciences Po Paris and Ecole Polytechnique in 'Economics and Public Policy'. As of 2005 he chairs The Brooks World Poverty Institute at the University of Manchester. Stiglitz is a New-Keynesian economist.

In addition to making numerous influential contributions to microeconomics, Stiglitz has played a number of policy roles. He served in the Clinton Administration as the chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisors (1995 – 1997). At the World Bank, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Economist (1997 – 2000), in the time when unprecedented protest against international economic organizations started, most prominently with the Seattle WTO meeting of 1999. He was fired by the World Bank for expressing dissent with its policies. He was a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

He is a member of Collegium International, an organization of leaders with political, scientific, and ethical expertise whose goal is to provide new approaches in overcoming the obstacles in the way of a peaceful, socially just and an economically sustainable world. He is also a member of the scientific committee of the Fundacion IDEAS, a Spanish think tank.

Stiglitz has advised American President Barack Obama, but has also been sharply critical of the Obama Administration's financial-industry rescue plan. Stiglitz said that whoever designed the Obama administration's bank rescue plan is "either in the pocket of the banks or they’re incompetent."

In October 2008 he was asked by the President of UN's General Assembly to chair a commission entrusted with drafting a report on the reasons for and solutions to the financial crisis. In response, the commission produced the Stiglitz Report.

On July 25, 2011, Stiglitz participated to the "I Foro Social del 15M" organized in Madrid (Spain) expressing his support to the 2011 Spanish protests.

Contributions to economics

Information asymmetry

Stiglitz's most famous research was on screening, a technique used by one economic agent to extract otherwise private information from another. It was for this contribution to the theory of information asymmetry that he shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 2001 "for laying the foundations for the theory of markets with asymmetric information" with George A. Akerlof and A. Michael Spence.

Before the advent of models of imperfect and asymmetric information, the traditional neoclassical economics literature had assumed that markets are efficient except for some limited and well defined market failures. More recent work by Stiglitz and others reversed that presumption, to assert that it is only under exceptional circumstances that markets are efficient. Stiglitz has shown (together with Bruce Greenwald) that "whenever markets are incomplete and/or information is imperfect (which are true in virtually all economies), even competitive market allocation is not constrained Pareto efficient". In other words, they addressed "the problem of determining when tax interventions are Pareto-improving. The approach indicates that such tax interventions almost always exist and that equilibria in situations of imperfect information are rarely constrained Pareto optima." Although these conclusions and the pervasiveness of market failures do not necessarily warrant the state intervening broadly in the economy, it makes clear that the "optimal" range of government recommendable interventions is definitely much larger than the traditional "market failure" school recognizes. For Stiglitz, there is no such thing as an invisible hand. According to Stiglitz:

In the opening remarks for his prize acceptance "Aula Magna", Stiglitz said:

In an interview in 2007, Stiglitz explained further:

Efficiency wages: the Shapiro-Stiglitz model

Stiglitz also did research on efficiency wages, and helped create what became known as the ''"Shapiro-Stiglitz model"'' to explain why there is unemployment even in equilibrium, why wages are not bid down sufficiently by job seekers (in the absence of minimum wages) so that everyone who wants a job finds one, and to question whether the neoclassical paradigm could explain involuntary unemployment. The answer to these puzzles was proposed by Shapiro and Stiglitz in 1984: "Unemployment is driven by the information structure of employment". Two basic observations undergird their analysis:

# Unlike other forms of capital, humans can choose their level of effort. # It is costly for firms to determine how much effort workers are exerting.

A full description of this model can be found at the links provided. Some key implications of this model are:

# Wages do not fall enough during recessions to prevent unemployment from rising. If the demand for labour falls, this lowers wages. But because wages have fallen, the probability of 'shirking' (workers not exerting effort) has risen. If employment levels are to be maintained, through a sufficient lowering of wages, workers will be less productive than before through the shirking effect. As a consequence, in the model wages do not fall enough to maintain employment levels at the previous state, because firms want to avoid excessive shirking by their workers. So, unemployment must rise during recessions, because wages are kept 'too high'. # Possible corollary: Wage sluggishness. Moving from one private cost of hiring to another private cost of hiring will require each firm to repeatedly re-optimize wages in response to shifting unemployment rate. Firms cannot cut wages until unemployment rises sufficiently (a coordination problem).

The outcome is never Pareto efficient.

# Each firm employs too few workers because it faces private cost of hiring rather than the social cost — which is equal to and in all cases. This means that firms do not "internalize" the "external" cost of unemployment - they do not factor how large-scale unemployment harms society when assessing their own costs. This leads to a negative externality as marginal social cost exceeds the firm's marginal cost (MSC = Firm's Private Marginal Cost + Marginal External Cost of increased social unemployment) # There are also negative externalities. Each firm increases the asset value of unemployment for all other firms by hiring. But the first problem clearly dominates since the 'natural rate of unemployment' is always too high.

Some possible practical implications of Stiglitz theorems

While the mathematical validity of Stiglitz ''et al.'' theorems are not in question, their practical implications in political economy and their application in real life economic policies have been subject to considerable disagreement and debate. Stiglitz himself seems to be continuously adapting his own political-economic discourse, as we can see from the evolution in his positions as initially stated in ''Whither Socialism?'' (1994) to his own new positions held on his most recent publications.

::Once incomplete and imperfect information are introduced, Chicago-school defenders of the market system cannot sustain descriptive claims of the Pareto efficiency of the real world. Thus, Stiglitz's use of rational-expectations equilibrium assumptions to achieve a more realistic understanding of capitalism than is usual among rational-expectations theorists leads, paradoxically, to the conclusion that capitalism deviates from the model in a way that justifies state action—socialism—as a remedy.

::The effect of Stiglitz's influence is to make economics even more presumptively interventionist than Samuelson preferred. Samuelson treated market failure as the exception to the general rule of efficient markets. But the Greenwald-Stiglitz theorem posits market failure as the norm, establishing "that government could potentially almost always improve upon the market's resource allocation." And the Sappington-Stiglitz theorem "establishes that an ideal government could do better running an enterprise itself than it could through privatization" (Stiglitz 1994, 179).

The objections to the wide adoption of these positions suggested by Stiglitz's discoveries do not come from economics itself but mostly from political scientists and are in the fields of sociology. As David L. Prychitko discusses in his "critique" to ''Whither Socialism?'' (see below), although Stiglitz's main economic insight seems generally correct, it still leaves open great constitutional questions such as how the coercive institutions of the government should be constrained and what the relation is between the government and civil society.

Politics

Clinton administration, 1993 - 1997

Stiglitz joined the Clinton Administration in 1993, serving first as a member during 1993-1995, and then as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during 1995-1997, in which capacity he also served as a member of the cabinet. He became deeply involved in environmental issues, which included serving on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and helping draft a new law for toxic wastes (which was never passed).

Stiglitz's most important contribution in this period was helping define a new economic philosophy, a "third way", which postulated the important, but limited, role of government, that unfettered markets often did not work well, but that government was not always able to correct the limitations of markets. The academic research that he had been conducting over the preceding 25 years provided the intellectual foundations for this "third way".

When President Bill Clinton was re-elected, he asked Stiglitz to continue to serve as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers for another term. But he had already been approached by the World Bank, to be its senior vice president for development policy and its chief economist.

As the World Bank began its ten-year review of the transition of the former Communist countries to the market economy it unveiled failures of the countries that had followed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shock therapy policies - both in terms of the declines in GDP and increases in poverty - that were even worse than the worst that most of its critics had envisioned at the onset of the transition. Clear links existed between the dismal performances and the policies that the IMF had advocated, such as the voucher privatization schemes and excessive monetary stringency. Meanwhile, the success of a few countries that had followed quite different strategies suggested that there were alternatives that could have been followed. The U.S. Treasury had put enormous pressure on the World Bank to silence his criticisms of the policies which they and the IMF had pursued.

Stiglitz always had a poor relationship with Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers. In 2000, Summers successfully petitioned for Stiglitz's removal, supposedly in exchange for World Bank President James Wolfensohn's re-appointment – an exchange that Wolfensohn denies took place. Whether Summers ever made such a blunt demand is questionable – Wolfensohn claims he would "have told him to fuck himself".

Stiglitz resigned from the World Bank in January 2000, a month before his term expired. The Bank's president, James Wolfensohn, announced Stiglitz's resignation in November 1999 and also announced that Stiglitz would stay on as ''"special advisor to the president"'', and would chair the search committee for a successor.

:"Joseph E. Stiglitz said today [Nov. 24, 1999] that he would resign as the World Bank's chief economist after using the position for nearly three years to raise pointed questions about the effectiveness of conventional approaches to helping poor countries."

In this role, he continued criticism of the IMF, and, by implication, the US Treasury Department. In April 2000, in an article for ''The New Republic'', he wrote:

:"''They’ll say the IMF is arrogant. They’ll say the IMF doesn’t really listen to the developing countries it is supposed to help. They’ll say the IMF is secretive and insulated from democratic accountability. They’ll say the IMF’s economic ‘remedies’ often make things worse – turning slowdowns into recessions and recessions into depressions. And they’ll have a point. I was chief economist at the World Bank from 1996 until last November, during the gravest global economic crisis in a half-century. I saw how the IMF, in tandem with the U.S. Treasury Department, responded. And I was appalled''."

The article was published a week before the annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF and provoked a strong response. It proved too strong for Summers and, yet more lethally, Stiglitz's protector-of-sorts at the World Bank, Wolfensohn. Wolfensohn had privately empathised with Stiglitz's views, but this time was worried for his second term, which Summers had threatened to veto. Stanley Fisher, deputy managing director of the IMF, called a special staff meeting and informed at that gathering that Wolfensohn had agreed to fire Stiglitz. Meanwhile, the Bank's External Affairs department told the press that Stiglitz had not been fired, his post had merely been abolished.

In a September 19, 2008 radio interview with Aimee Allison and Philip Maldari on Pacifica Radio's KPFA 94.1 FM in Berkeley, California, Stiglitz implied that President Clinton and his economic advisors would not have backed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) had they been aware of stealth provisions, inserted by lobbyists, that they overlooked.

Initiative for Policy Dialogue

In July 2000 Stiglitz founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD), with support of the Ford, Rockefeller, McArthur, and Mott Foundations and the Canadian and Swedish governments, to enhance democratic processes for decision-making in developing countries and to ensure that a broader range of alternatives are on the table and more stakeholders are at the table.

Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System

In 2009, Stiglitz chaired the Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System, informally known as the Stiglitz Commission, which was convened by the President of the United Nations General Assembly "to review the workings of the global financial system, including major bodies such as the World Bank and the IMF, and to suggest steps to be taken by Member States to secure a more sustainable and just global economic order".

Support to the 2011 Spanish Protests

On July 25, 2011, Stiglitz participated to the "I Foro Social del 15M" organized in Madrid (Spain) expressing his support to the 2011 Spanish protests. During an informal speech, he made a brief review of some of the problems in Europe and in the United States, the serious unemployment rate and the situation in Greece. "This is an opportunity for economic contribution social measures," argued Stiglitz, who made a critical speech about the way authorities are handling the political exit to the crisis. He encouraged those present to respond to the "bad ideas", not with indifference, but with "good ideas". "This does not work, you have to change it," he said.

Books

Along with his technical economic publications (he has published over 300 technical articles), Stiglitz is the author of books on issues from patent law to abuses in international trade.

''Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy'' (2010)

In ''Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy'', Stiglitz discusses the causes of the 2008 recession/depression and goes on to propose reforms needed to avoid a repetition of a similar crisis, advocating government intervention and regulation in a number of areas. Among the policy-makers he criticises are George W. Bush, Larry Summers, and Barack Obama.

This book does not require an economics background in order to be of value to the reader. Rather it explains Stiglitz's views on the recent economic crisis in terms which make it relevant to the average homeowner, retirement investor, and voter in the United States. He explains how without fundamental changes in economic policy and regulation the position of the US in the world political and economic arena may deteriorate significantly.

''The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict'' (2008)

''The Three Trillion Dollar War'' examines the full cost of the Iraq War, including many hidden costs. The book also discusses the extent to which these costs will be imposed for many years to come, paying special attention to the enormous expenditures that will be required to care for very large numbers of wounded veterans. Stiglitz was openly critical of George W. Bush at the time the book was released.

''Stability with Growth: Macroeconomics, Liberalization and Development'' (2006)

In ''Stability with Growth: Macroeconomics, Liberalization and Development'', Stiglitz, José Antonio Ocampo (United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, until 2007), Shari Spiegel (Managing Director, Initiative for Policy Dialogue - IPD), Ricardo Ffrench-Davis (Main Adviser, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean - ECLAC) and Deepak Nayyar (Vice Chancellor, University of Delhi) discuss the current debates on macroeconomics, capital market liberalization and development, and develop a new framework within which one can assess alternative policies. They explain their belief that the Washington Consensus has advocated narrow goals for development (with a focus on price stability) and prescribed too few policy instruments (emphasizing monetary and fiscal policies), and places unwarranted faith in the role of markets. The new framework focuses on real stability and long-term sustainable and equitable growth, offers a variety of non-standard ways to stabilize the economy and promote growth, and accepts that market imperfections necessitate government interventions. Policy-makers have pursued stabilization goals with little concern for growth consequences, while trying to increase growth through structural reforms focused on improving economic efficiency. Moreover, structural policies, such as capital market liberalization, have had major consequences for economic stability. This book challenges these policies by arguing that stabilization policy has important consequences for long-term growth and has often been implemented with adverse consequences. The first part of the book introduces the key questions and looks at the objectives of economic policy from different perspectives. The third part presents a similar analysis for capital market liberalization.

''Making Globalization Work'' (2006)

''Making Globalization Work'' surveys the inequities of the global economy, and the mechanisms by which developed countries exert an excessive influence over developing nations. Dr. Stiglitz argues that through tariffs, subsidies, an over-complex patent system and pollution, the world is being both economically and politically destabilised. Stiglitz argues that strong, transparent institutions are needed to address these problems. He shows how an examination of incomplete markets can make corrective government policies desirable.

Stiglitz is an exception to the general pro-globalization view of professional economists, according to economist Martin Wolf. Stiglitz argues that economic opportunities are not widely enough available, that financial crises are too costly and too frequent, and that the rich countries have done too little to address these problems. ''Making Globalization Work'' had sold more than two million copies.

''Fair Trade for All'' (2005)

''New Paradigm for Monetary Economics'' (2004)

''The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World's Most Prosperous Decade'' (2003)

''The Roaring Nineties"'' is Stiglitz' analysis of the boom and bust of the 1990s. Presented from an insider's point of view, firstly as chair of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors, and later as chief economist of the World Bank, it continues his argument on how misplaced faith in free-market ideology led to the global economic issues of today, with a perceptive focus on US policies.

''Globalization and Its Discontents'' (2002)

In ''Globalization and Its Discontents'', Stiglitz argues that what are often called "developing economies" are, in fact, not developing at all, and puts much of the blame on the IMF.

Stiglitz bases his argument on the themes that his decades of theoretical work have emphasized: namely, what happens when people lack the key information that bears on the decisions they have to make, or when markets for important kinds of transactions are inadequate or don't exist, or when other institutions that standard economic thinking takes for granted are absent or flawed. Stiglitz stresses the point: "Recent advances in economic theory" (in part referring to his own work) "have shown that whenever information is imperfect and markets incomplete, which is to say always, and especially in developing countries, then the invisible hand works most imperfectly." As a result, Stiglitz continues, governments can improve the outcome by well-chosen interventions. Stiglitz argues that when families and firms seek to buy too little compared to what the economy can produce, governments can fight recessions and depressions by using expansionary monetary and fiscal policies to spur the demand for goods and services. At the microeconomic level, governments can regulate banks and other financial institutions to keep them sound. They can also use tax policy to steer investment into more productive industries and trade policies to allow new industries to mature to the point at which they can survive foreign competition. And governments can use a variety of devices, ranging from job creation to manpower training to welfare assistance, to put unemployed labor back to work and cushion human hardship.

Stiglitz complains bitterly that the IMF has done great damage through the economic policies it has prescribed that countries must follow in order to qualify for IMF loans, or for loans from banks and other private-sector lenders that look to the IMF to indicate whether a borrower is creditworthy. The organization and its officials, he argues, have ignored the implications of incomplete information, inadequate markets, and unworkable institutions—all of which are especially characteristic of newly developing countries. As a result, Stiglitz argues, the IMF has often called for policies that conform to textbook economics but do not make sense for the countries to which the IMF is recommending them. Stiglitz seeks to show that these policies have been disastrous for the countries that have followed them.

''Whither Socialism?''

''Whither Socialism?'' is based on Stiglitz's Wicksell Lectures, presented at the Stockholm School of Economics in 1990 and presents a summary of information economics and the theory of markets with imperfect information and imperfect competition, as well as being a critique of both free market and market socialist approaches (see Roemer critique, op. cit.). Stiglitz explains how the neoclassical, or Walrasian model (''"Walrasian economics"'' refers to the result of the process which has given birth to a formal representation of Adam Smith's notion of the "invisible hand", along the lines put forward by Leon Walras and encapsulated in the general equilibrium model of Arrow-Debreu), may have wrongly encouraged the belief that market socialism could work. Stiglitz proposes an alternative model, based on the information economics established by the Greenwald-Stiglitz theorems.

One of the reasons Stiglitz sees for the critical failing in the standard neoclassical model, on which market socialism was built, is its failure to consider the problems that arise from lack of perfect information and from the costs of acquiring information. He also identifies problems arising from its assumptions concerning completeness.

Papers and conferences

Stiglitz wrote a series of papers and held a series of conferences explaining how such information uncertainties may have influence on everything from unemployment to lending shortages. As the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton Administration and former chief economist at the World Bank, Stiglitz was able to put some of his views into action. For example, he was an outspoken critic of quickly opening up financial markets in developing countries. These markets rely on access to good financial data and sound bankruptcy laws, but he argued that many of these countries didn't have the regulatory institutions needed to ensure that the markets would operate soundly.

He co-authored a paper titled "Implications of the New Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Risk-Based Capital Standard" with Peter Orszag in 2002 in which they concluded "on the basis of historical experience, the risk to the government from a potential default on GSE debt is effectively zero."

Private life

Stiglitz married for the third time on October 28, 2004, to Anya Schiffrin, who works at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Publications

; Books:

2010, ''Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy'' ISBN 978-0393075960, W. W. Norton.

2010, ''Time for a Visible Hand: Lessons from the 2008 World Financial Crisis'' ISBN 978-0-19-957880-1, edited with Stephany Griffith-Jones and José Antonio Ocampo, Oxford University Press, 2010

2008, ''The Three Trillion Dollar War'' ISBN 978-0-39-306701-9; by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, W. W. Norton.

2006, ''Making Globalization Work'' ISBN 0-393-06122-1, Penguin Books, August 2006.

2006, ''Stability with Growth: Macroeconomics, Liberalization, and Development'' ISBN 0-19-928814-3 (Initiative for Policy Dialogue Series C); by Joseph E. Stiglitz, Jose Antonio Ocampo, Shari Spiegel, Ricardo Ffrench-Davis, and Deepak Nayyar; Oxford University Press 2006

1996, ''Whither Socialism ?'' Stiglitz, Joseph E., (Wicksell Lectures), MIT Press, January 1996.

2000, ''Frontiers of Development Economics: The Future in Perspective'', edited with Gerald M. Meier, World Bank, May 2000.

2001, ''Rethinking the East Asian Miracle'', edited with Shahid Yusuf, World Bank and Oxford University Press.

2002, ''Principles of Macroeconomics'', third edition, with Carl E. Walsh, W.W. Norton & Company, March 2002.

2002, ''Economics'', Third Edition, with Carl E. Walsh, W.W. Norton & Company, April 2002.

2002, ''Peasants Versus City-Dwellers: Taxation and the Burden of Economic Development'', with Raaj K. Sah, Oxford University Press, April 2002.

2002, ''Globalization and Its Discontents'', W.W. Norton & Company, June 2002.

2003,''Towards a New Paradigm in Monetary Economics'', with Bruce Greenwald, Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. Description and chapter-preview links.

2003, ''The Roaring Nineties'', W.W. Norton & Company, forthcoming in October 2003.

''Fair Trade for All: How Trade Can Promote Development'' (Initiative for Policy Dialogue Series C)– by Joseph E. Stiglitz, Andrew Charlton; Hardcover

2000, 3rd ed. ''Economics of the Public Sector.''

2002, ''The Rebel Within: Joseph Stiglitz and the World Bank'' by Joseph E. Stiglitz (Editor), Ha-Joon Chang (Editor), ISBN 1-898855-91-9, Anthem Press, Wimbledon Publishing Company (Paperback - February 25, 2002)

2005, ''The Development Round Of Trade Negotiations In The Aftermath Of Cancun'' by Joseph E. Stiglitz, Andrew Charlton (Paperback - January 30, 2005)

2005, ''A Chance For The World Bank'' by Joseph P Stiglitz (Foreword), Jozef Ritzen, ISBN 1-84331-162-3, Anthem Press, Wimbledon Publishing Company (Paperback - May 30, 2005)

1986, 'Economics of the Public Sector' by J.E.Stiglitz ISBN 0-393-96651-8, W.W.Norton, New York. (Re-printed 1988, 2000)

1981, 'Theory of Commodity Price Stabilization' by David M.G. Newbery and Joseph E. Stiglitz ISBN 0198284179 ISBN 978-0198284178, Oxford University Press [Hardcover: 512 pages]

''Readings in the Modern Theory of Economic Growth'' by Joseph E. Stiglitz (Editor), Hirofumi Uzawa (Editor)

; Book chapters:

2009. "Regulation and Failure," in David Moss and John Cisternino (eds.), ''New Perspectives on Regulation'', ch. 1, pp. 11-23. Cambridge: The Tobin Project.

2001, New Ideas About Old Age Security: Toward Sustainable Pension Systems in the 21st Century , edited with Robert Holzmann, World Bank, January 2001.

; Selected scholarly articles

2007, "Prizes, Not Patents" post-autistic economics review, issue no. 42

1998, Distinguished lecture on economics in government: The private uses of public interests: Incentives and institutions. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 12, 3–22.

1998, ''Redefining the Role of the State - What should it do ? How should it do it ? And how should these decisions be made?'' Paper presented at the Tenth Anniversary of MITI Research Institute, Tokyo, March 1998.

1996, The World Bank Research Observer: No 2: August 1996 by Joseph Stiglitz

1993, “Post Walrasian and post Marxian economics,” ''Journal of Economic Perspectives'', vol. 7, pp. 109–14

1993, “Market socialism and neoclassical economics,” in Bardhan, P. K. and Roemer, J. E. (eds.), ''Market Socialism. The Current Debate'', New York: Oxford University Press

1989, “Principal and agent,” in J. Eatwell, M. Milgate and P. Newman (eds.), ''The New Palgrave. Allocation, Information and Markets''. New York: W. W. Norton

1987, “The causes and consequences of the dependence of quality on prices”, ''Journal of Economic Literature'', vol. 25, pp. 1–48

1981 (with A. Weiss), "Credit Rationing in Markets with Imperfect Information", ''American Economic Review'', vol. 71, pp. 393–410

1977 (with A.K. Dixit), “Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity”, ''American Economic Review'', vol. 67, pp. 297–308

1976 (with M. Rothschild), “Equilibrium in Competitive Insurance Markets: An Essay on the Economics of Imperfect Information”, ''Quarterly Journal of Economics'', vol. 90, pp.  629–650.

1974, “Incentives and Risk Sharing in Sharecropping”, ''Review of Economic Studies'', Vol. 41, No. 2, 219-255.

1974, “Alternative Theories of Wage Determination and Unemployment in LDCs: The Labour Turnover Model”, ''Quarterly Journal of Economics'', vol. 81, pp. 194–227

1971 (with M. Rothschild), “Increasing Risk: II. Its Economic Consequences”, ''Journal of Economic Theory'', Vol. 3, pp. 66–84

1970 (with M. Rothschild), “Increasing Risk: I. A Definition”, ''Journal of Economic Theory'', Vol. 2, pp. 225–243

; Articles in popular press:

2011, "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%", Vanity Fair, May 2011

2010, Review of

2009, "Wall Street’s Toxic Message", Vanity Fair, July 2009

2009, "America's socialism for the rich", The Guardian, June 2009

2009, "Capitalist Fools", Vanity Fair, January 2009

2007, "The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush", Vanity Fair, December 2007 Issue

2007, Where is the World Going To, Mr. Stiglitz? directed by Jacques Sarasin, First Run Features.

2002, "Implications of the New Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Risk-based Capital Standard", for FannieMae Volume I, Issue 2 March 2002

; Video and online sources:

2010, Freefall: Joseph Stiglitz at the Commonwealth Club

2008, The Three Trillion Dollar War a panel discussion with Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes regarding their new book, `''The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict''.` Feb 28, 2008 at Columbia University.

2007, Where is the World Going To, Mr. Stiglitz? directed by Jacques Sarasin, First Run Features.

World Bank Video presentation

Online access to Stiglitz published papers, at his own website

See also

List of economists

List of Jewish Nobel laureates

References

External links

Joseph E. Stiglitz at Columbia University

* Joseph Stiglitz committee chair profile at Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University

Information and the Change in the Paradigm in Economics 2001 lecture at NobelPrize.org

Profile and Papers at Research Papers in Economics/RePEc

Publications at the National Bureau of Economic Research

Column archives at Project Syndicate

Joseph Stiglitz with Matthew Bishop at the 92nd Street Y, January 2010

Interview at The Commonwealth Club, February 2010

Free Markets and the World Economy with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, July 2010

Category:Academics of the University of Oxford Category:American anti-globalization writers Category:American economists Category:American Nobel laureates Category:Amherst College alumni Category:Ashkenazi Jews Category:Clinton Administration personnel Category:Columbia University faculty Category:Development economists Category:Development specialists Category:New Keynesian economists Category:Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Category:Fellows of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Category:Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Category:Fellows of the British Academy Category:Fellows of the Econometric Society Category:Information economists Category:International development Category:International Panel on Climate Change lead authors Category:Jewish American writers Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:Members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences Category:Nobel laureates in Economics Category:People from Gary, Indiana Category:Princeton University faculty Category:People associated with the University of Manchester Category:Public economists Category:Stanford University faculty Category:United States Council of Economic Advisors Category:World Bank Chief Economists Category:Yale University faculty Category:Keio University faculty Category:1943 births Category:Living people Category:Foreign Members of the Royal Society Category:Faculty of Sciences Po Category:Gerald Loeb Award winners

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