Paul Samuelson was born in 1915 in Gary, Indiana. He was a bright student, and received his PhD from Harvard in Economics. In 1940, he became a professor of economics at MIT, only to become an emeritus professor in 1986. He was the first economist to theorize that the universal nature of consumer behavior is the fundamental component of economic theory. He outlined this theory in his brilliant book, Foundations of Economic Analysis (1947). He is most famous for his critically acclaimed textbook Economics (1948), which is used in virtually all Ivy League economics introductory courses. In fact, it is the best selling U.S. economics textbook of all time.
Professor Samuelson also influenced and pioneered such areas of study as: the dynamics of economic systems, analyses of public goods, welfare economics, and public expenditure. In 1970, he became just the third person in history to be awarded the Nobel Prize in economics. He was cited as winning the award for his “fundamental contributions to nearly all branches of economics”. Paul Samuelson lives with his wife in Belmont, Massachusetts to this day. He is undoubtedly one of the most important pioneers in the history of economics.