Professor Lisa Cameron and Professor Ian McDonald from the Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Melbourne, have been made Distinguished Fellows of the Economics Society of Australia, announced at the Australian Conference of Economists on 11 July in Brisbane.
This is the highest honour the Society can bestow. The Distinguished Fellow Award honours “distinguished Australian economists for their contribution to the development of economics”.
Professor Cameron joined the Department of Economics as a Lecturer in 1997, having received a doctorate from Princeton. She returned to the Melbourne Institute as a Professorial Research Fellow in July 2017 after spending several years at Monash University from 2010.
Her work focuses on development economics and experimental economics, combined with insights from behavioural economics. She is a prolific author (her Google scholar citation count is at 6848 and rising); was appointed the James Riady Chair in Asian Economics and Business in 2022; has contributed many articles to leading international journals; is ranked in the top 5% of economists worldwide, according to the RePEc (Research Papers in Economics); and has supervised 14 doctoral candidate students.
“I thank the Economic Society for awarding me this Distinguished Fellowship. It is a real honour,” Professor Cameron said.
“I am very thankful for the opportunities that a career in economics has offered me and the many friendships that have formed as a result.”
Professor McDonald joined the Department of Economics as a lecturer in 1974 (from Simon Fraser University where he completed his PhD). He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1981, Reader in 1986 and Professor in 1990; was Head of Department from 1993 to 1996 (among many other administrative positions); and was appointed an Emeritus Professor in March 2012 following his retirement.
He continues to teach, research and publish, adding to his four published books, 15 Chapters and 91 journal articles. Currently, his main fields of study are Behavioural Economics and Macroeconomics. Ian is also an Editor of the Australian Economic Review.
“It is a great honour to be awarded the Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Society,” Professor McDonald said in his acceptance speech.
“The Society has played an important role in economics in Australia, both in encouraging academic research, especially on Australia, and in combining gown and town.”