Professor James Heckman
Professor James J Heckman, American Nobel Prize-winning economist from the University of Chicago, has been awarded a prestigious Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). He and his team will carry out the funded research project at UCD.
Professor Heckman’s pioneering, highly interdisciplinary ERC project on ‘understanding health across the lifecourse’, combines health, social and economic research. Studying the origins and the evolution of health inequalities over the entire life of human beings and across generations will bring the team to focus on experiences and conditions during early childhood (eg family environment, early health, cognitive ability) and their long-term effects on health. The research will also explore policy implications for health prevention and remediation.
ERC President Professor Helga Nowotny commented: "It is encouraging and exciting for the ERC to welcome Professor Heckman, Nobel Memorial Prize winner in Economic Science, as a grant holder. This most recent example of an American top researcher attracted by an ERC grant to work in Europe is further recognition of the attractiveness of the ERC. It is a very positive signal for European research in general and for Ireland in particular".
Whilst being a Professor and a Director at the University of Chicago, Prof Heckman has held the title of Professor of Science and Society at UCD since 2005.
Professor Heckman said: "This five-year ERC funding gives me and my team at UCD a unique opportunity to further our knowledge in this field." He will be supported by a team of seven researchers from a wide range of disciplines, including co-investigator epidemiologist Prof George Davey Smith. The team members will be based at UCD, as well as at the University of Bristol and the University of Essex, UK.
In 2000, Professor Heckman received the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for his development of statistical methods for analysing selective samples. Prof Heckman was the recipient of the UCD Ulysses Medal in 2006.
The ERC Advanced Grant is a funding scheme targeted at established leading researchers. Set up in 2007 by the EU as part of the 7th Research Framework Programme, the ERC is the first pan- European funding organisation for frontier research. It aims to stimulate scientific excellence in Europe by encouraging competition for funding between the very best, creative researchers of any nationality and age. In addition to funding established research leaders (ERC Advanced Grants), the ERC also supports younger, early-career researchers (ERC Starting Grants). The ERC strives to attract top researchers from anywhere in the world to lead or be involved in research projects in Europe.
