Oliver Hart receives University of Cambridge Honorary Degree
Nobel Prize-winning economist, and the Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University, Oliver Hart, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Science from the University of Cambridge in June 2025. The degree was recognition for his significant work in economic theory, including his Nobel Prize-winning research on contract theory. Hart’s work focuses on the theory of contracts, how parties can write better contracts, and on the social responsibility of business.
Hart’s connection to the University of Cambridge goes back to his early college years, earning his B.A. in mathematics at King's College, Cambridge in 1969, before completing a PhD at Princeton University. Later, he was a fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge from 1975-1981. He has been a professor at Harvard University since 1993.
He has used his theoretical work on firms and contracts in several legal cases. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the British Academy, and the American Finance Association, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, and has several honorary degrees. He has been president of the American Law and Economics Association and a vice president of the American Economic Association.
Hart is the 2016 co-recipient of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. He was knighted as a Knight Bachelor in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to economic theory.
For more, see Oliver Hart’s website.
