Harry Markowitz American economist, winner of the Nobel Prize and the John von Neumann Prize. Date of Birth: 24.08.1927 Country: USA

Biography of Harry Markowitz

Harry Markowitz is an American economist and the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics and the John von Neumann Award. He made the transition from physics and philosophy to economics during his time at university, where he used mathematical models to solve economic problems and made significant contributions to the field. Markowitz was born into a Jewish family and developed a strong interest in physics and philosophy during his school years, particularly in the ideas of David Hume. This interest continued during his studies at the University of Chicago, where he specialized in economics.

During his time at the University of Chicago, Markowitz had the opportunity to work with renowned economists such as Milton Friedman, Tjalling Koopmans, Jacob Marschak, and Leonard Savage. As a student, he was invited to join the Cowles Commission for Economic Research, which was based in Chicago at the time. Under the guidance of Marschak, Markowitz wrote his dissertation on the application of mathematical models in analyzing stock markets. This research led him to the realization that current techniques lacked risk analysis, which inspired him to develop the theory of portfolio allocation under uncertainty.

In 1952, while working at the RAND Corporation, Markowitz collaborated with George Dantzig on optimization techniques and further development of the critical line algorithm, which later became known as the "Markowitz frontier" for determining optimal portfolios. In 1955, Markowitz earned his doctoral degree, choosing a topic so innovative that even Milton Friedman believed it had no relation to economics.

Following his time at the Cowles Foundation, Markowitz spent a year at the Yale University, invited by James Tobin. He later joined the City University of New York as a professor and received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1990. A year prior, Markowitz was awarded the John von Neumann Prize by the Operations Research Society of America for his contributions to portfolio theory, sparse matrix processing methods, and simulation programming languages.

In 1968, Markowitz joined Michael Goodkin's company, Arbitrage Management, where he collaborated with Paul Samuelson and Robert Merton to establish a hedge fund focused on computerized arbitrage trading. After successfully operating as a private hedge fund, the company was sold to Stuart&Co in 1970, with Markowitz becoming the CEO. A year later, he left the company.

Currently, Harry Markowitz is involved in teaching and consulting. He lectures at the School of Management at the University of California, San Diego, and records video lectures. He also serves on the advisory board of SkyView Investment Advisors, an alternative investment hedge fund group. In recent years, Markowitz has been working with the GuidedChoice project, focusing on the development of investment software and addressing retirement planning and distribution of financial assets.