Rady School of Management, University of California, San Diego, plans to create an endowed chair in the name of Harry M. Markowitz, his such first academic honor, announced Robert S. Sullivan, dean of the Rady School.
Mr. Sullivan made the announcement Oct. 16 at a celebration of Mr. Markowitz for the 25th anniversary of his receiving the Nobel prize in economics.
The school is raising funds to endow the chair, said Zachary K. Smith, Rady director of development. “It’s a pretty significant amount, and we are close to it,” Mr. Smith said, declining to disclose the fundraising goal.
The Rady Academic Senate still has to vote to approve creation of the chair, an action that then must be ratified by Janet Napolitano, University of California president, Mr. Smith said.
Mr. Smith wasn’t sure whether the school has begun recruiting candidates for the chair.
Mr. Markowitz, now an adjunct professor of finance at the Rady school, was awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 1990 for his groundbreaking research that laid the foundation of modern portfolio theory and changed the investment management landscape.
The school hosted the event attended by nearly 300 investment industry professionals, faculty, alumni and students on its La Jolla campus celebrating Mr. Markowitz’s Nobel anniversary.
Among the speakers at the event, Bruce I. Jacobs, principal, Jacobs Levy Equity Management, said that from Mr. Markowitz’s foundational work on modern portfolio theory “evolved the vast field of quantitative finance that has produced extraordinary innovations for more than 50 years. And it will continue to do so for generations. The pace of innovations based on MPT has not slowed,” Mr. Jacobs said, according to prepared remarks.
Mr. Markowitz couldn’t be reached for comment.
