Arnljot Strømme Svendsen awarded the Onassis Prize

On Tuesday evening, it was announced that Professor Emeritus Arnljot Strømme Svendsen has been awarded the Onassis Prize 2012 for his research work in the field of maritime economics. 'This is not just a prize for me personally, but also for those with whom I have worked at the Norwegian School of Economics over the years,' says the winner. In Norwegian

10.05.2012 - Knut André Karlstad (translated by Anneli Olsen/Allegro)

Professor Strømme Svendsen shares the shipping prize of USD 200,000 dollar with researchers Ernst Frankel (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Richard Goss (Cardiff University). This very prestigious prize is awarded by the Onassis Foundation in cooperation with Cass Business School in London. The Onassis Foundation was established after the death of Aristoteles Onassis in 1975 to honour the memory of his son, who had passed away two years earlier.

'I am of course both overwhelmed and surprised, but most of all grateful. It is recognition of the Norwegian School of Economics as a research institution for maritime economics, and it underlines the fact that the maritime research in Norway is attracting attention in the rest of the world,' says Arnljot Strømme Svendsen, who began his academic career at the Norwegian School of Economics in 1948.

'This is wonderful news for Arnljot Strømme Svendsen and for the Norwegian School of Economics. It is well deserved recognition of his work and the national and international importance of his research in shipping economics,' says Rector Jan I Haaland.

Department builder

Throughout his long career at the Norwegian School of Economics, the prizewinner contributed to building a strong Norwegian research environment in the field of shipping. The Department of Shipping Economics was established in 1958, and Professor Strømme Svendsen was head of the department until 1991.

'The Norwegian School of Economics was the first institution in the Nordic countries to establish a separate department for shipping economics, and it has served as a base for broad-based maritime research. But when I started around 1950, I was pretty much on my own,' he says, and draws a line from the Norwegian School of Economics' second rector, Eilif W Paulson, who had carried out research on the shipping industry, to the present generation of researchers in shipping, shipping history and fisheries economics.

Selected by Nobel Laureates

This year's Onassis Prize is awarded in three categories - finance, international trade and shipping.

The Lord Mayor of London, Alderman David Wootton, will make the formal presentation on 12 September, and each of the winners will give a lecture at Cass Business School on the same day.

'I am looking forward to it. This is after all an award linked to one of the greatest figures in international shipping,' says Strømme Svendsen.

The jury that selected the prizewinners comprises several highly reputed scholars, including Nobel Prize laureates Robert Merton and Myron Scholes. The Onassis Prize is intended to honour scholarly achievements in a field for which there has previously not been a globally recognised award, and the Foundation hopes that the prize will achieve the same prestige as the Nobel Prize for Economics.