Joel Mokyr arrived in Evanston in 1974, heard Richard Nixon's resignation on his car radio during the drive, and never left. More than 50 years later, the Northwestern economics and history professor is the subject of a cover profile in Northwestern Magazine's Spring 2026 issue, following his 2025 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

The profile, written by Stephanie Kulke and published May 1, includes a video tour of Mokyr's office and explores his research on long-run economic growth and the role of knowledge in human progress.

The university has marked the occasion with a string of campus events. Northwestern's economics department held a two-day conference honoring Mokyr on May 29 and May 30 at the Kellogg Global Hub's White Auditorium on Campus Drive. The event celebrated his 50-year career, his Nobel-winning scholarship, and his contributions to economic history. Mokyr also delivered the Weinberg College Convocation address to the Class of 2026 on Saturday, June 13, according to the university's social media accounts.

Mokyr, 79, holds the Robert H. Strotz Professorship of Arts and Sciences and is a professor of both economics and history. He received half of the 2025 Nobel Memorial Prize, sharing the honor with Philippe Aghion of the Collège de France and Peter Howitt of Brown University. The Nobel committee recognized the three scholars on October 13, 2025, for explaining how innovation drives long-term economic growth. The total prize was 11 million Swedish kronor, approximately $1.16 million.

Mokyr was specifically cited for identifying the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress. His research examined why European societies after 1600 became "technologically progressive" while other advanced civilizations did not, and how innovations build on one another in a self-generating process.

He was born in Leiden, the Netherlands, to a Dutch-Jewish family that survived the Holocaust. His father died when he was one year old, and his mother raised him in Haifa, Israel. He earned his bachelor's degree in economics and history from Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1968, then completed his doctorate at Yale before joining Northwestern as his first and only academic position. He has supervised more than 50 doctoral students during his career. One of his co-laureates, Peter Howitt, earned his Ph.D. from Northwestern in 1973.

Mokyr is Northwestern's fourth Nobel laureate, following Fraser Stoddart (Chemistry, 2016), Dale Mortensen (Economics, 2010), and John Pople (Chemistry, 1998). Northwestern Provost Kathleen Hagerty called him "a brilliant example of the power of interdisciplinary work," according to the Chicago Tribune.

In his December 2025 Nobel banquet speech in Stockholm, Mokyr acknowledged the downsides of creative destruction, including job elimination and environmental degradation. He closed with a line that captures his outlook: "The best way to summarize our technological future is the American colloquialism 'You ain't seen nothin' yet!'"