Robert M. Solow, emeritus professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Nobel Prize-winner for Economics in 1987 awared te title of Doctor Honoris Causa by UPF on 29 February at a ceremony that toke place at 12.00 o'clock at UPF's Ciutadella campus auditorium. Robert M. Solow's promoter was Andreu Mas Colell, professor of the Department of Economics and Business at the University, and the laudatio speech was given by Jaume Ventura, professor at the same department and researcher at the Research Centre for International Economics (CREI).  

The Board of Governors of UPF agreed to award the honoris causa to this most eminent academic at the proposal of the Department of Economics and Business "for his crucial contributions in a variety of fields of economic science, which have constituted a starting point for modern economic theory of growth, and in recognition of his extensive and at the same time intense academic and intellectual trajectory".

Robert M. Solow has been UPF's fourth doctor honoris causa since its foundation in 1990, following in the footsteps of South African archbishop Desmond Tutu (2000), historian and humanist Miquel Batllori, together with eleven universities in Catalonia (2002) and film maker Woody Allen (2007).

The investiture ceremony

After the academic authorities entered the auditorium, Josep Joan Moreso, UPF rector, commenced the act. He was followed by Tomàs de Montagut, vicerector of Institutional Relations and secretary general, who proceeded with the reading of the agreement by the Board of Governors to confer the honoris causa degree upon Robert M. Solow. Once Andreu Mas-Colell and the doctorand entered the auditorium, Jaume Ventura made his laudatio speech.

> Robert M Solow Laudatio, pronounced by Jaume Ventura ( english version, pdf)

> Acceptance speech by Robert M. Solow (english version, pdf 4 pages.)

> Parliament of the rector Josep Joan Moreso (in catalan , pdf 4 pages)

The most solemn moment in the ceremony was Robert M. Solow's investiture. He pronounced then his speech of acceptance. Josep Joan Moreso made the closing speech.

Music also was present during the ceremony, as there was several performances by the UPF Choir and Chamber Orchestra. The University choir, directed by Enric Azuaga, performed two pieces, at the start and at the end of the act, which will be an adaptation of Beethoven's 7th Symphony and the University's traditional Gaudeamus Igitur, and the popular Shenadoah. The Chamber Orchestra, led by Diego Miguel-Urzanqui, interpreted a piece by Johan Pachelbel once the new Doctor accepted his award.

One of the fathers of modern economics

The extensive and at the same time intense academic and intellectual trajectory of Robert M. Solow, emeritus professor at the MIT (the institution to which he has been associated since 1949) make him, without a doubt, one of the fundamental pillars of modern economic science.

Robert M. Solow was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1924 immigrant parents. He belongs to the first generation of his family that was able to go to university. Having gone through education at the state schools in his birthplace, in 1940 he got a grant to go to Harvard and, among others, studied sociology, anthropology and economics. At the end of 1942 he joined the army and served in North Africa, Sicily and Italy during the Second World War. Upon returning to Harvard, in 1945, he decided to pursue his studies of economics with Wassily Leontief, his master, friend and guide, whom he assisted in calculating the first set of technical coefficients of the input-output tables.

Robert M. Solow has made crucial contributions in several fields of the science of economics, starting in 1956 with the publication of the article entitled "A contribution to the theory of economic growth". In this fundamental article, Robert Solow develops a mathematical model, in the form of a differential equation, which described how increased capital stock generates greater per-capita production. This contribution and his successive work, have founded a starting point for modern economic theory of growth, highlighting the importance of knowledge as a key variable for economic growth. In 1987, the Royal Swedish Academy of Science awarded Robert M. Solow with the Nobel Prize for Economics precisely "for his contributions in the field of the theory of economic growth".

Currently, Robert Solow is president of the Board of Directors of Manpower Demonstrations Research Corporation, a non-profit making organisation which has undertaken pioneering work in the experimentation and evaluation of policies to boost occupation and improve the incomes of certain underprivileged groups, such as children that fail at secondary school. Member of the scientific committee of the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, recently, he has collaborated with the Russell Sage Foundation in a study on the extraordinary results of the North American economy during the period 1995-2000, which has given rise to the book, entitled The Roaring Nineties.