IMF chief analyst Eswar S. Prasad appointed to Cornell's Tolani Senior Professorship

Eswar S. Prasad, chief of the Financial Studies Division of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has been named the Tolani Senior Professor in International Trade Policy at Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Prasad will assume the appointment in January 2007.

A macroeconomist who formerly headed the IMF's China Division, Prasad studies issues of globalization, growth and volatility in developing and industrialized countries and has an extensive research program on the Chinese and Indian economies. He is a graduate of the University of Madras and earned his M.A. from Brown University and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, both degrees in economics.

"Dr. Prasad has contacts with high-level government officials in finance, trade and commerce and is experienced in presenting policy recommendations at multiple levels, including to high government officials," said William Lesser, Cornell's Susan Eckert Lynch Professor in Science and Business and chair of the Department of Applied Economics and Management. "He has led the International Monetary Fund desk for China and worked frequently with India, two countries of clear interest to Cornell and to the global market. His appointment adds further depth to our scholarship and leadership in international trade policy and business."

The Tolani chair was established in 2005 by the Tolani Shipping Co. Ltd. of Mumbai, India, to honor the company's founder, Cornell alumnus Nandlal P. Tolani, M.S. '47, Ph.D. '64. Tolani, a champion of broadened access to both trade and higher education in India, has established several educational campuses in that country. As the Tolani Professor, Prasad is expected to establish significant and lasting ties to academic, business and government leadership in India. In addition, the Tolani endowment will allow Prasad to recruit a graduate fellow from India.

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