Sylvia Nasar

Professor Nasar was the first James S. and John L. Knight Professor of Business Journalism. She co-directed the M.A. program in business journalism.

Professor Nasar is the author of the bestselling biography, "A Beautiful Mind," which has been published in 30 languages, including Farsi, Turkish, Russian and Hindi, and inspired the Academy Award-winning movie directed by Ron Howard (2001).

Trained as an economist, Professor Nasar was a New York Times economics correspondent (1991-1999), staff writer at Fortune (1983-1989) and columnist at U.S. News & World Report (1990). Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Newsweek, The New York Times Sunday Book Review, Fast Company, London Telegraph and numerous other publications. 

She lectured on topics ranging from globalization and economics to mental illness and mathematics. Professor Nasar co-edited "The Essential John Nash" (2001) and “Best American Science Writing of 2008” (2009), acted as creative consultant for the American Experience documentary, “A Brilliant Madness” (2001), and wrote the script for the 321 Fast Draw video, “The History of Economic Progress in Four Minutes” (2011).

She is the recipient of many honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship (2013), the Berlin Prize (2013), the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Science and Technology (2011), the Spears Financial History Book of the Year Award (2011), and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography (1998) and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography (1998). She has held visiting fellowships at the Russell Sage Foundation (2006-2007), the MacDowell Colony (2006), Yaddo (2005), the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (2002-2003, 1995-96); and Kings and Churchill Colleges, Cambridge University (2000). She has served as a judge for the National Book Award, Anthony Lucas Book Award, the Lynton History Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, Dow Jones Newswires, and SABEW and serves on the advisory board of TeenScreen.

Professor Nasar, who grew up in Germany and Turkey, received her B.A. in literature from Antioch College (1970) and her M.A. in economics from New York University (1976). She was awarded honorary doctorates from De Paul University (2005) and Niagara University (2011).