The Enduring Inspiration of a Nobel Laureate
A version of this story appeared on July 3, 2023, in UC San Diego Today.
Revered economist Harry Markowitz, a former adjunct professor at UC San Diego's Rady School of Management, earned the Nobel Prize in economic sciences in 1990 for his revolutionary research on buying stocks, which challenged traditional orthodoxy on portfolio investments. Markowitz’s paper “Portfolio Selection,” published in the Journal of Finance in 1952, upended the standard thinking on investing that, at the time, consisted of simply choosing shares of a group of companies that were thought to have the best prospects.
Known as the father of modern portfolio theory, Markowitz drew from statistics and advanced mathematics to introduce the theory that the best portfolio is one that minimizes risk for a given expected return. He was the first to apply portfolio diversification, a new type of investing that has now permeated all aspects of money management.
From 2007 until he retired in 2019, Markowitz taught portfolio theory at the Rady School. During his tenure there, the Dr. Harry M. Markowitz Endowed Chair in Finance and Investing was established, funded through an estate gift from the Rady Family Foundation and cumulative gifts from the many donors inspired by Markowitz’s enduring influence on the finance and investing community.
The chair is part of broader efforts to recruit and retain exceptional scholars to the Rady School’s nationally recognized faculty, building on its reputation as a pioneer in a new model of business education.
Allan Timmermann, the current holder of the Markowitz Chair, a distinguished professor of finance at the Rady School and a close friend of Markowitz, said, “I always point out to my students that Harry’s pathbreaking work on modern portfolio theory continues to be called ‘modern’ today, even though it was published in 1952. What else remains modern after 70 years?”
Markowitz and his late wife, Barbara, were longtime benefactors to UC San Diego. They contributed more than $6 million, primarily to support the Barbara and Harry Markowitz Fellowship, which benefits Rady School students. In 2018, Markowitz donated his Nobel Prize medal to the Rady School, and it was placed in the Special Collections & Archives at UC San Diego’s Library.
In 2023, at the age of 95, Markowitz died, leaving behind a legacy that will be difficult to match. He once said “I taught full-time, part-time and lectured all over the world, but the Rady School and UC San Diego are my home.” Indeed, as Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla observed, “Harry Markowitz … had an indelible impact on UC San Diego. His legacy of passion for teaching, quest for truth, innovation and love for UC San Diego will continue to inspire our students and faculty for many, many years to come.”
