New Prize in Shipping

Aristotle Onassis would not have been eligible but the fortune the Golden Greek amassed is to fund a new award for academics in the shipping, trade and finance sector.

The aim is to turn the new Onassis prize and the $250,000 award that goes with it into something comparable to the Nobel prize for economics for those labouring in the scholastic backwaters of the shipping industry.

The prize is being launched today by the Centre for Shipping, Trade and Finance at the Cass Business School of London’s City University, reports TradeWinds.

The first award is to be made next year with the recipient chosen by a panel of six academics and Anthony Papadimitriou, head of the foundation set up in 1975 under the will of the Greek tanker tycoon.

The judges include two Nobel economics laureates honoured for their work in the options and derivatives field, profs Robert Merton of Harvard and Myron Scholes of Stanford.

They developed the Black-Scholes pricing model and put their ideas into action at Long Term Capital Management, a hedge fund that soared and then crashed with losses of $4.6bn in one of the most renowned of corporate failures.

Other judges include profs George Constantinides of Chicago, Charles Goodhart, of the London School of Economics and Costas Grammenos, who founded the Cass shipping, trade and finance centre.
The Onassis prize will be awarded biennially and recognise a lifetime academic contribution.

Source:Seanews