US EditionNobel-Winning Economists To Leave US For Zurich: University
Duflo and Banerjee will co-lead a new development economics center at UZH with CHF 26 million funding from the Lemann Foundation to support policy-relevant research worldwide.
- On October 10, 2025, the University of Zurich announced Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will join UZH from July next year to establish a new centre for development economics.
- Reports say the move follows worries about US research funding cuts and threats to academic freedom, while experts warned this environment risks a brain drain attracting US scientists abroad.
- Each economist will take an endowed professorship at UZH funded by the Lemann Foundation, supported by a CHF 26 million donation.
- They will co-lead the Lemann Center for Development, Education and Public Policy to foster policy-relevant research, and university president Michael Schaepman said `We are delighted that two of the world's most influential economists are joining UZH`.
- Both laureates, who won the 2019 Nobel Prize shared with Michael Kremer, will retain part-time roles at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while joining UZH in July next year.
20 Articles
20 Articles
Nobel laureates winners Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo to leave US for Switzerland amid funding cuts
Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, who won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics, will join the University of Zurich in Switzerland starting July next year. The move from the US comes as experts warn that President Donald Trump’s cuts to research funding and attacks on academic freedom could cause a brain drain of top scientists. At the University of Zurich, the couple will set up the Lemann Centre for Development, Education and Public Policy. The c…
Nobel Winners Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo To Leave US Amid Funding Row
US-based Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will soon join the University of Zurich, where they will establish a new centre for development economics, the institution said Friday.
Nobel laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo will leave US for Switzerland following MIT snub to Trump's deal
The University of Zurich announced that Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will be joining its economics faculty next July to establish a centre for development economics, leaving their positions at MIT.
The Nobel Prize in Economics Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee leave MIT for Zurich University. A resounding transfer that illustrates Europe's attractiveness in an uncertain American context.
US President Donald Trump cuts funds and jobs for US scientists. Now two Nobel laureates leave the US, but despite full-bodied announcements from Germany, their path does not lead to the EU – research funds also play a role.
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