Success for the University of Zurich Nobel Prize winners Duflo and Banerjee come to Switzerland
Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee are stars in poverty research and won the Nobel Prize in 2019. Now the couple are coming to the University of Zurich - where they are to set up a research center.
10.10.2025, 20:08
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- Esther Duflo and her husband Abhijit Banerjee will leave the USA and conduct research at the University of Zurich from 2026.
- The two Nobel Prize winners will establish a center for development economics, education and policy-making in Zurich.
- At UZH, Duflo and Banerjee will each take on an endowed professorship funded by the Lemann Foundation.
Nobel laureate Esther Duflo and Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee will be working at the University of Zurich from July 2026. The two will establish a center for development economics, education and policy-making there.
Esther Duflo and her husband Abhijit Banerjee are currently working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and will move to the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Zurich (UZH) next year, as announced by the university on Friday.
Together with Michael Kremer, the couple were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2019 for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.
"The new Lemann Center will enable us to continue and expand our work bridging academic research, student mentoring and evidence-based development economics," Duflo was quoted as saying in the press release.
Two new endowed professorships
At UZH, Duflo and Banerjee will each take on an endowed professorship funded by the Lemann Foundation. They will continue their research in the fields of development economics and the effectiveness of political measures in the areas of education, poverty and health.
The establishment of the new "Lemann Center for Development, Education and Public Policy" and the two endowed professorships are made possible by a donation of CHF 26 million from the Lemann Foundation. This is a charitable foundation based in São Paulo. The foundation is backed by the Brazilian-Swiss investor Jorge Paulo Lemann.
A particular focus of the Lemann Center at UZH will be on promoting relations between UZH and Brazilian researchers and political decision-makers.
