Georgesu-Roegen Biography

Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (1906-1994), the father of ecological economics was a Romanian-born mathematician and economist. He was the first to challenge conventional economic theory by formally demonstrating the thermodynamic foundations of the economic process.

He was born in Constantsa , Romania in 1906 to a family in modest circumstances. He acquired a love for mathematics in primary and secondary school, and went on to study it at the University of Bucharest in 1976. He then won a scholarship to the University of Sorbonne ( Paris ) where he turned from mathematics to statistics. He was granted the doctoral degree avec les felicitations du jury in 1930. Another scholarship allowed him to continue his studies in London under Karl Pearson from 1930 to 1932, who played an important role in influencing his thought. He then returned to Romania to become Professor of Statistics at the University of Bucharest . In 1934 he received a scholarship from the Rockefeller Foundation where he worked with Joseph Schumpeter on Business Cycles. He then returned to his native country Romania where he held several government positions and continued an active academic career. After the second world war, Georgescu-Roegen had to leave Romania . He made his way back to Harvard, and in 1949 was invited to join the faculty of economics at Vanderbilt University in Nashville , Tennessee . He remained there for the rest of his career till his retirement in 1976.

Bibliography:

Cutler J. Cleveland (Lead Author); Tom Lawrence (Topic Editor);. 2008. "Georgescu-Roegen, Nicholas." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland ( Washington , D.C. : Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth December 22, 2006 ; Last revised March 3, 2008 ; Retrieved July 3, 2010 ]< http://eoearth.org/article/Georgescu-Roegen,_Nicholas >

Maneschi, A. and S. Zamagni (1997). "Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, 1906-1994 " The Economic Journal 107 (442): 695-707

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