The professor of economics and history was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in recognition of his groundbreaking theory on sustained economic growth, emphasizing the roles of useful knowledge, mechanical competence, and supportive institutions.
We can observe in the past, economic systems, societies and interactions that have disappeared from this earth. But if we don’t study them, we miss a great deal of what economics teaches us.”
Joel Mokyr
Robert H. Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Economics and History
October 13, 2025, was an exciting day for Joel Mokyr, who received the news of a lifetime: He had just been announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.
The Nobel Laureate's research spans the fields of economic and labor history and the history of science, technology and medicine.
With a tenure at Northwestern spanning over 50 years, Joel Mokyr has connected far-reaching fields, uncovering relationships between history, evolutionary and epistemological theory, technological development and industrialization.
He teaches in both the Department of Economics and the Department of History at Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.
2016: Joel Mokyr receives lifetime achievement award in economics.
2018: Clash of the Titans. Economics professors Robert Gordon and Joel Mokyr debate the future of economic growth.
2025: Professor Mokyr expresses surprise and gratitude at the Nobel Prize press event on the Northwestern campus.
2025: Raising a glass to celebrate the momentous day (From left: Jeff Ely, economics chair; Mokyr; Kevin Boyle, history chair).
Joel Mokyr joined the University in 1974 and has mentored generations of scholars, many of whom now teach at top institutions including Stanford, Yale and Michigan.
Crazy as it sounds, your Nobel Prize-winning academic career will be only your second-most important legacy. The first is us: dozens and dozens of students whose minds you have shaped.”
A former Northwestern student
Over the years, Nobel Prizes have been awarded to Northwestern University faculty for world-changing research across diverse fields, including chemistry, economics and nanoscience.
J. Fraser Stoddart was awarded the 2016 prize in Chemistry with Jean-Pierre Sauvage of University of Strasbourg, France, and Bernard L. Feringa of University of Groningen, the Netherlands. They were recognized "for the design and synthesis of molecular machines." Read about Sir Fraser Stoddart's accomplishment.
Dale Mortensen was the Board of Trustees Professor of Economics at Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. He was the recipient of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics. He and his fellow awardees were recognized for "their analysis of markets with search frictions." Dale Mortensen's Nobel Prize medal was donated to Northwestern in 2019.
John Pople was a pioneer in the theoretical study of the properties of molecules. His research focused on applying the complicated mathematics of quantum mechanics to study the chemical bonding between atoms within molecules. Pople won the 1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, sharing the honor with Walter Kohn of the University of California, Santa Barbara.