Congratulations to Our 2005 Recipient
The award committee was particularly impressed with Professor Skrzypacz’s ability to produce cutting-edge research while still making PhD students feel like they were the most important part of the GSB community.
We appreciated the stories of how he stood up for students again and again. We were amazed at Professor Skrzypacz’s extensive involvement with the thesis and job market preparations of all of the Economic Analysis and Policy Program’s graduates for the last two years. His interaction with students goes well beyond an open door policy — he actively seeks out students to assist them with their research and other aspects of their path into academia.
Excerpts and Highlights from Nominations
On Teaching
Andy comes up with new and more intuitive proofs of long-established results, while he could very easily have presented the well-known proofs.
Andy is the person you ask for an introduction to a new area of economics. Andy is the person you first go to with an idea.
By having a very good combination of being tough and demanding, but at the same time encouraging and full of suggestions, he has had a big impact on the way I write and think about economics.
Andy values teaching the PhDs. He is always prepared for class and is open to students’ questions and difficulties. When he promises to answer a question in the next class—he always remembers to do so!
On Advising and Research
One of Andy’s strongest attributes is his openness to hear and help not only his advisees, but any student who knocks on his door.
I have benefited from Andy’s encouragement many times when I was losing hope about research.
The work Andy has put in as my advisor is even more impressive given the fact that he is just an assistant professor with other worries to attend to.
A few months after talking with Andy about an idea that I had, he sent me an email about a seminar on the exact same subject. It was amazing!
My only fear is that he has set the standards so high that I wonder if I’ll ever feel that I deliver as much value and dedication to my future students as he has given to me.
Exemplar
By his sheer presence on the pitch, Andy makes even the least able footballer feel better about themselves.
Even though at social events Andy is almost always talking economics, these more relaxed interactions break the ice between him and the students.
Professor Skrzypacz has the ability to produce cutting-edge research while still making PhD students feel like they are the most important part of the GSB community.
Andy is welcoming and friendly. This is particularly important for the students who are just starting to produce research and find it intimidating to talk to faculty for the first time.
This award seems to have been designed for Andy.