Professor David Byrne from FBE’s Department of Economics has been appointed to the position of Ritchie Chair of Economic Research.
The Chair was established in 1927 by FBE’s first Dean Sir Douglas Copland with funding from businessman and philanthropist Alan Ritchie.
Professor Byrne’s research focuses on industrial organisation, particularly how digital, energy, and resource markets operate and are regulated. He was previously Deputy Director of the Centre of Market Design and is now Deputy Head (Research) of the Department of Economics. Internationally, he is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Industrial Organisation, and an Executive Committee Member of the Asia-Pacific Industrial Organization Society and European Association of Industrial Economics. In 2023, the Economic Society of Australia awarded him Young Economist of the Year, and in 2024, he was appointed to the Australian Competition Tribunal to advise the Australian Government on major competition matters.
“I’m very grateful and proud to have been ‘born and bred’ as a scholar at the University of Melbourne. It’s been nothing but support and personal and professional growth for someone from the middle-of-nowhere Canada raising a family in Melbourne. It’s a message and culture I’m clear-eyed on with our faculty and institution and I will push for in supporting others,” said Professor Byrne.
“I’ll be continuing my efforts in research, teaching, and public engagement, and increasingly, supporting colleagues in their journeys at UoM in pursuit of excellence,” he said.
Professor Byrne was appointed to the position as FBE celebrates 100 years since Sir Copland established the Faculty in 1924.