Prolific professor wins national award

A University of Queensland professor is among the world leaders in economics after winning a prestigious research award.

John Quiggin from UQ’s School of Economics and School of Political Science and International Studies, has won the 2004 Australian Citation Laureate for economics.

He is the only Queensland academic amongst 17 national winners in a range of fields from space science to philosophy.

The award recognises prolific researchers as measured by United States Publishers Thomson-ISI, which tallies an author’s published and quoted works.

Researchers with the most citations between 1981 and 2003 won their category.

Professor Quiggin had 725 citations and 76 papers, including his award-winning research on the economics of global warming and the financial impact of reviving the Murray-Darling Basin.

The award puts Professor Quiggin in the top 0.1 percent of his field globally. The next most cited Australian economist had 557 citations.

“I keep track of my papers that cite my work but I wasn’t expecting an award,” Professor Quiggin said.

“It’s certainly nice that people are paying attention to your work.”

He received his award from Federal Minister for Education Science and Training Brendan Nelson in Canberra this morning before speaking at a researchers’ forum.

Professor Quiggin, who researches economics full-time, has been published in newspapers, books, journals and parliamentary committees on many issues from tax, privatisation to employment.

The 47-year-old from St Lucia has a fortnightly column in the Australian Financial Review and his economic research helped two researchers win a Nobel prize.

In 2003, he won a Federation Fellowship- the Federal Government’s scheme to keep Australia’s leading researchers in the country.

Much of his recent research has delved into making decisions under uncertainty and predicting worst case scenarios and how to cope with them.

For more information contact: Professor Quiggin on (0400 485 202, j.quiggin@uq.edu.au) or Miguel Holland at UQ communications on (07 3655 2619, m.Holland@uq.edu.au)