钱颖一院长在“陈岱孙经济学纪念讲座”首讲上的致辞

2011年4月22日

亲爱的老师们、同学们：

这周我们迎来了清华大学的第一个百年校庆。与此同时，清华经管学院启动了“陈岱孙经济学纪念讲座”，以此庆贺清华大学百年寿辰，以及清华经管学院的源流——清华大学经济系建系85周年。我们也希望以此纪念长期担任经济系系主任的陈岱孙教授。大家可能知道，世界上很多经济系都有这类以人名冠名的系列讲座。“陈岱孙经济学纪念讲座”将是本学院面向师生的最高级别学术讲座。我们相信，讲座系列这种形式影响长久，源远流长，是一份对百年校庆的最佳献礼。

我们的讲座系列以陈岱孙教授冠名。陈岱孙教授生于1900年，1920年自北京清华学校毕业，1922年在美国威斯康星大学获得经济学本科学位后，又赴哈佛大学深造，于1926年获经济学博士学位。与他同时在哈佛大学经济系学习的同学中，有赫克塞尔－俄林国际贸易模型的冠名者之一贝蒂•俄林（Bertil Ohlin），还有以寡头竞争理论闻名的爱德华•张伯伦（Edward Chamberlin）。1928年，陈岱孙教授回到中国，同年出任清华大学经济系教授及系主任，直到1952年中国高等学校院系调整时经济学系并入其他高校。陈岱孙教授于1997年逝世，享年97岁。

陈岱孙教授被公认为中国现代经济学教育之父。在他的领导下，清华大学经济学系成为当时中国最好的经济学系之一。陈岱孙教授在任期间，经济学系是清华大学里本科生最多的系，约占整个大学所有本科生的五分之一。为了纪念陈岱孙教授，清华大学建了一尊他的塑像，就安置在伟伦楼本报告厅外。

今天，我们荣幸地请到埃里克•马斯金（Eric Maskin）教授，为陈岱孙经济学纪念讲座进行首讲。埃里克•马斯金教授与里奥尼德•赫维茨（Leonid Hurwicz）和罗杰•迈尔森（Roger Myerson）共同获得2007年诺贝尔经济学奖，获奖理由是他们“奠定了机制设计理论的基础”。马斯金教授1976年获哈佛大学博士学位，与陈岱孙教授获得博士学位相隔整整半个世纪。同年，他赴剑桥大学耶稣学院担任研究员。1977年至1984年间，马斯金教授在麻省理工学院任教，随后又于1985至2000年执教于哈佛大学。2000年至今，他在普林斯顿高等研究院担任阿尔伯特•赫希曼社会学教授。同时，他也是清华经管学院的一名名誉教授。

八十年代我在哈佛大学学习时，马斯金教授曾经担任我的博士论文导师。这于我是一件非常幸运的事。同时，马斯金教授还是清华经管学院教授白重恩、李稻葵、以及特聘教授许成钢的博士生导师。回首过去，我在哈佛大学攻读博士学位的时光，尤其是在埃里克指导下的学习经历，是我一生中最难忘的珍贵回忆。那几年的生活改变了我的人生。

二十多年过后，今天，我以清华经管学院院长的身份，有幸邀请马斯金教授来到清华大学，参与百年校庆。请大家和我一起欢迎埃里克•马斯金教授进行陈岱孙经济学纪念讲座首讲。

附：钱颖一院长在陈岱孙经济学纪念讲座首讲上的致辞英文原文

Opening Remarks at the Inaugural Chen Daisun Memorial Lecture in Economics

Yingyi Qian

April 22, 2011

Dear faculty and students,

We are in the week of celebrating Tsinghua’s first centennial. On this occasion, theSchoolofEconomicsand Management atTsinghuaUniversitydecided to launch “Chen Daisun Memorial Lecture in Economics” to mark Tsinghua centennial, as well as the 85th year of the founding of the Department of Economics at Tsinghua, and to remember Chen Daisun, the long time chairman of the department. As you may know, many economics departments in the world have such “named” lectures. This memorial lecture would be the highest honor in our school for an academic speech delivered publicly to the faculty and students. We believe that this is a good way to mark the centennial because it will have a lasting impact.

This lecture is named after Professor Chen Daisun. Professor Chen was born in 1900. He graduated fromTsinghuaCollegein 1920. He then received his bachelor’s degree in economics from theUniversityofWisconsinin 1922 and went to Harvard and received his PhD in Economics in 1926. His contemporaries at Harvard’s economics department included Bertil Ohlin whose name later appeared in the Heckscher-Ohlin model of international trade, and Edward Chamberlin, who is known for his monopolistic competition theory. Dr. Chen returned toChinain 1928 and became professor of economics and chair of the economics department at Tsinghua in 1928 until 1952, when the economics department was moved to other universities. He died in 1997 at age of 97.

Professor Chen is widely considered as the father ofChina’s modern economics education. Under his leadership, the economics department at Tsinghua was developed into one of the best inChinaat the time. It enrolled most students (about 20%) among all undergraduate programs at Tsinghua during his time. To honor him,TsinghuaUniversityerected a statue of his outside this auditorium and inside this building.

Today, we are extremely honored to have Professor Eric Maskin to deliver the inaugural Chen Daisun Memorial Lecture in Economics. Eric was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics, together with Leonid Hurwicz and Roger Myerson for “having laid down the foundations of mechanism design theory.” Eric received his PhD fromHarvardUniversityin 1976, exactly fifty years after Professor Chen Daisun received his from Harvard. After he earned his doctorate, Eric went to theUniversityofCambridgein 1976 where he was a research fellow atJesusCollege,Cambridge. He taught at MIT from 1977–1984 and at Harvard from 1985-2000. Since 2000, he is the Albert O. Hirschman Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study atPrinceton. Eric Maskin is also an honorary Professor of theSchoolofEconomicsand Management atTsinghuaUniversity.

I was very lucky to have Eric as my PhD thesis advisor at Harvard in the 1980s. More than that, Eric was also PhD advisor of Professors Bai Chong-En and Li Daokui, both of them are on our faculty, as well as Professor Xu Chenggang, whos is a Special-Term Professor at our school. In retrospect, my time at Harvard as a graduate student, especially as a student of Eric, is the most memorable time period in my life. It changed my life.

More than twenty years later, today I, as the dean of theSchoolofEconomicsand Management, have the honor to invite Eric to Tsinghua during the centennial celebration. Please join me in welcoming Professor Eric Maskin to deliver the inaugural Chen Daisun Memorial Lecture in Economics.