Aris Spanos reappointed Wilson E. Schmidt Professor in Economics
Aris Spanos, professor of economics in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, was recently reappointed the Wilson E. Schmidt Professor of Economics by Virginia Tech President Timothy D. Sands and Executive Vice President and Provost Thanassis Rikakis.
The Wilson E. Schmidt Professorship in Economics was established by the family of the former head of the Department of Economics to support faculty excellence. The professorship appointment is for five years.
Spanos has held the Wilson E. Schmidt Professorship since 2001 and is the only person to have held this honor.
Spanos first came to Virginia Tech in 1986 as an associate professor. He left the university in 1992 to head the economics department of the newly established University of Cyprus and subsequently served as acting rector there for two years. He returned to Virginia Tech in 1999 as a professor and was chair of the Department of Economics from 2001 to 2006.
Spanos is an internationally known econometrician who established his reputation by questioning the way in which empirical evidence is brought to bear on economic theories. He has shown how empirical inferences can be based on a firm statistical foundation and has illuminated the negative consequences of using inadequate statistical models.
Spanos recently helped Cyprus with a critique of an analysis and forecasting by the International Monetary Fund of that nation’s economy. His econometric analysis kept the IMF from imposing conditions on the Cyprus economy that the country could not meet.
He has written two highly influential texts on the application of statistical methods to problems in economics, both published by Cambridge University Press. They are widely used around the world in graduate economics courses.
Spanos also has published numerous professional articles, both in economics journals and in journals dealing with the philosophy of science. Since 2010, he has published 18 professional articles.
Spanos received his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics at the University of London.
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.
