DAVID LAIBSON  (Robert I. Goldman Professor of Economics; Director, Foundations of Human Behavior Initiative)

NINA ZIPSER  (Dean for Faculty Affairs and Planning in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics)

email contact:  fdlowell@g.harvard.edu

We love travelling and experiencing different cultural, artistic, religious, and culinary traditions with our 16 year old son, Max.  In the last year, we’ve been inspired by trips to China, Japan, and Singapore.  We are happiest when we are in nature; biking, hiking, paddling, sailing, and especially swimming/snorkeling.  Nina enjoys painting and David loves building sand castles, canals, dams, and other water-based engineering projects with Max.  We all enjoy gardening, with Nina planting small meadows of wildflowers, Max farming vegetables, and David trying to encourage moss to grow in every nook and cranny. 

After receiving economics degrees from Harvard (AB), the London School of Economics (MSc), and MIT (PhD), David joined the economics faculty at Harvard where he is currently the Robert I. Goldman Professor of Economics.  He leads Harvard Universityʼs Foundations of Human Behavior Initiative. His research focuses on the topic of behavioral economics, which fuses the fields of psychology and economics.  David has served as the Chair of our Department of Economics and as member of the Academic Research Council of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In recognition of his teaching, he has been awarded Harvardʼs ΦΒΚ Prize and a Harvard College Professorship.  

After receiving mathematics degrees from Columbia (BA) and Harvard (PhD), Nina joined the math faculty at M.I.T.. She then joined the Boston Consulting Group, and afterwards became Harvard’s first Director of the Office of Institutional Research.  She is currently the Dean for Faculty Affairs and Planning in the Faculty of Arts and Science.  She works closely with the FAS deans to develop and execute long-range plans and policies affecting the faculty.  She is also a lecturer on mathematics and teaches a Freshmen Seminar titled “Models of the World: Explaining the Past and Predicting the Future.”