[ad_1]
A Stanford University professor ran to his sleeping colleague’s house at 2 a.m. and woke him up to warn him they had just won the Nobel Peace Prize in economics.
Paul R. Milgrom, 72, and Robert B. Wilson, 83, received the prestigious award on Monday when Goran Hansson, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, announced the winners in Stockholm.
“His discoveries” have benefited sellers, buyers and taxpayers around the world, “the Nobel Committee said.
Their auction formats have been used to sell radio frequencies, fishing quotas, and landing slots at airports.
But Milgrom almost missed the incredible moment because he was fast asleep inside his home in Stanford, California. Fortunately, Wilson, who lives across the street, was on his way.
American economists Paul R. Milgrom, 72, (left) and Robert B. Wilson, 83, (right) were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for “improvements in auction theory and inventions of new auction formats.” .
Doorbell camera footage shows Wilson, with his wife, running into Milgrom’s front yard wearing only his pajamas.
Wilson rings the bell, rings, and eventually tries to turn the front door knob numerous times in an attempt to shake the man up.
‘Paul?’ Milgrom says when his colleague answers sleepily. It’s Bob Wilson. You have won the Nobel Prize!
Wilson adds that the Nobel Committee was trying to reach Milgrom’s phone, but could not locate it because he had disconnected it.
“Wow,” says Milgrom, stunned by the revelation.
Robert B. Wilson (center), pictured with his wife, crossed the street to Paul Milgrom’s home after the Nobel Committee was unable to locate him Monday morning.
Wilson (center) rang the bell and knocked on the front door of Milgrom’s Stanford, California, until his colleague and friend woke up.
While speaking to reporters Monday morning, Milgrom admitted that he was asleep when the exciting news came.
He called Wilson’s ad “very good news” and said it was a “surprising way to meet him.”
Wilson confessed to reporters that he also missed the initial call from the Nobel Committee.
Well, I made the mistake of thinking it was a political call and disconnected the phone. Then they called my wife’s cell phone, ‘he said.
“But we had a kind of comedy because Paul Milgrom, who lives right across from me, had turned off all his phones, so the Nobel committee couldn’t communicate.
So I had to go over and knock on the door in my pajamas to wake him up. So we had a meeting at the front door. ‘Hi Paul! You won the Nobel Peace Prize! ”
Milgrom (left) talking about Wilson (right): ‘What makes it a special pleasure, besides all the friends that are here, is winning this together with Bob’
During a Zoom call with his Stanford colleagues, Milgrom admitted that one of the best parts of winning the award was doing it with Wilson.
“What makes it a special pleasure, besides all the friends that are here, is winning this together with Bob,” he said.
Bob was my dissertation advisor. [He] He introduced me to the study of auctions as a way of studying markets and resource allocation early in my research career. ‘
The European Union has even used its theories and methodology to auction off emission rights to combat climate change.
Milgrom is Professor of Humanities and Sciences in the department of economics at Stanford University, while Wilson is Professor Emeritus of Management at Stanford School of Business.
Wilson described his former student as “some kind of genius behind all this auction work,” noting that they first worked together at auctions in the 1970s.
Their discoveries “have benefited sellers, buyers and taxpayers around the world,” the Nobel Committee said. Its auction formats have been used to sell radio frequencies, fishing quotas, and airport landing places.
“We are really motivated to use the theory in a very practical way to improve various economic processes,” Wilson said.
Wilson’s work focused on the theory of common value, the best estimate of the value of an item that bidders try to bid under it to avoid overpaying.
Milgrom’s work analyzed bidding strategies to determine how an auction format can provide the seller with higher expected revenues, as bidders estimate the “private value” that others place on auction items.
Together, they created new auction formats that were adopted by US authorities in 1994 to sell radio frequencies to telecommunications operators.
Tommy Andersson, a member of the Committee for the Alfred Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, speaks during the announcement of the winners on Monday at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.
Speaking to reporters in Stockholm on the phone after learning of his victory, Wilson struggled to think of an auction in which he himself had participated. But then he added: ‘My wife points out that we buy ski boots on eBay. I guess it was an auction.
Technically known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economics in Memory of Alfred Nobel, the prize was established in 1969 and is now widely considered one of the Nobel laureates.
Last year’s award went to two researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a third from Harvard University, for their pioneering research on efforts to reduce global poverty.
The prestigious award comes with a cash prize of $ 1.1 million and a gold medal.
The face of the Nobel Prize medal shows Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman and philanthropist
There’s not much I can use it for, in terms of, you know, travel or something. I’ll probably save it for my wife, my kids, ” Wilson said.
Last week, the Nobel Committee awarded the Physiology and Medicine Prize for discovering the hepatitis C virus, which devastates the liver.
Tuesday’s physics award honored advances in understanding the mysteries of cosmic black holes, and Wednesday’s chemistry award went to the scientists behind a powerful gene-editing tool.
The literature prize was awarded to American poet Louise Gluck on Thursday for her “sincere and uncompromising” work. The World Food Program won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its effort to combat hunger around the world.
[ad_2]
