Distinguished Alumni Award

Nathan E. "Gene" Savin is a leading scholar in econometrics—the application of mathematics and statistical methods to economic data—whose groundbreaking research has received worldwide acclaim.

In a career spanning nearly five decades, Savin has occupied teaching positions at Northwestern University; the University of California, Berkeley; Stanford University; and Yale University. Immediately prior to arriving at the University of Iowa, he served on the faculty of the University of Cambridge for 10 years and was a fellow of Trinity College. Savin has worked at the UI for 25 exemplary years.

He completed all of his undergraduate and graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, receiving a bachelor's degree in economics in 1956, a master's degree in statistics in 1958, and a doctoral degree in economics in 1969. While finishing his doctorate, he also served as a mathematical statistician for the U.S. Forest Service.

Savin joined the UI Henry B. Tippie College of Business in 1986 and provided outstanding leadership for its Department of Economics until his official retirement in 2010. His research focused on time-series analysis, including non-stationary processes and hypothesis testing. At the height of his career, the department's national rankings in the field of econometric theory placed it among the top universities worldwide.

A prolific academician, Savin has published 64 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including many of the top journals in economics, and 15 of his papers have been cited more than 100 times. According to one evaluation, focused on the years between 1989 and 1999, he was the 28th most prolific scholar in econometric theory in the nation and 54th in the world. In addition, he has served on the editorial boards of three of the top journals in economics, and he is a fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Statistical Association.

In 1995, Savin became the University of Iowa George Daly Professor of Economics, and he has participated on a number of collegiate committees. He has also worked with the UI Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, and, in 2010, he served on the search committee for a new director of the UI Museum of Art.

A passionate believer in community engagement, Savin has invested generously in area cultural events. He and his wife, Susan Potter Enzle, 72BS, are trustees of a family foundation that supports a number of different art organizations, including Hancher and the UI Museum of Art; their gifts have reached thousands of Iowa schoolchildren. Savin is a member of the advisory board of the UI Museum of Art, sits on the board of trustees for the California College of the Arts, and is a trustee with the Nature Conservancy-Iowa Chapter. He has also served on the boards of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life and the New Pioneer Co-Op.

Thanks to his deep commitment to global thinking and local engagement, Nathan E. "Gene" Savin will leave a lasting imprint on the worlds of econometrics and the arts.

Savin is a member of the UI Foundation's Presidents Club.