The company of a genius
Bangkok Post, February 5, 2008

During his visit to Thailand as part of the “Bridges-Dialogues Towards a Culture of Peace” series, Prof. Finn Erling Kydland, 2004 Nobel laureate for Econonics, was dinner guest of MR Priyanandana Rangsit at Vidyu Palace,

Other eminent guests were Privy Councillor ML Usni Pramoj, US mbassador Eric John and French Ambassador Laurent Bili.

To be in the presence of a Nobel laureate is considered akin to being in the presence of royalty or the likes of Leonardo da Vinci or the Dalai Lama.

They seem larger than life, having made a huge contribution to the wealth of knowledge that benefits humankind and having been internationally recognized and feted as such.

In a nutshell, Prof. Kydland was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Economic Science jointly with Prof. Edward C. Prescott for their research on business cycles and macroeconomics policy, specifically, the driving forces behind business cycles and the time consistency of economic policy.

You can’t help wondering whether Nobel laureates think in the same way as normal human beings. Do they eat and sleep like us lesser mortals?

When the dinner conversation turned to the subject of children, one couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to be the child of a Nobel laureate. Would the brains run in the family? It would probably be quite a burden, too, to have to live up to expectations."

Prof. Kydland gave some answers when he announced that, when at University, his daughter was pretty much at me top of her class, earning “A”s in maths and most other subjects. .

The only subject where she got a "C" was -you guessed it- Principles of Economics!