Georgetown Economics Professor John Rust Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
John Rust, a Distinguished University Professor in Georgetown’s Department of Economics, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences — an esteemed recognition awarded to individuals who have made significant contributions to academia, the arts, industry, policy, research and science.
This year, the honorary society, which was founded in 1780, elected nearly 250 new members to the academy, including public figures like chef and World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés, CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper, filmmaker Ava DuVernay and activist Gloria Steinem.
Rust joined the Economics Department at Georgetown in 2012 and will retire in July. He is among dozens of Georgetown faculty and staff members who have been elected to the academy, including Interim President Robert M. Groves and President Emeritus John J. DeGioia (C’79, G’95). In 2023, the academy elected four Georgetown faculty members.
John Rust joined the Economics Department at Georgetown in 2012 and will retire in July.
“I feel very fortunate to receive the honor of being elected to the AAAS,” Rust said. “But for me, perhaps the biggest ‘award’ in my career is having the opportunity to be on the faculty at Georgetown since 2012 … I would have to ascribe a lot of the credit for my election to AAAS to all the incredible support that Georgetown has provided, from a wonderful academic community with so many inspiring students and colleagues I have been privileged to benefit from.”
Rust is well-known throughout the economics profession for his pioneering contributions to the area of structural econometrics. He has published research papers on a wide range of topics, including how Social Security and Medicare affect retirement behaviors in a world of incomplete markets and the optimal lifetime of nuclear power plants.
In 1992, Rust was awarded the prestigious Frisch Medal, one of the top prizes in the field of economics, for the paper, “Optimal Replacement of GMC Bus Engines: An Empirical Model of Harold Zurcher,” published in 1987. He became a fellow of the Econometric Society in 1993.
“We are delighted to learn of Professor Rust’s appointment to the Academy of Arts and Sciences. Of the many well-deserved accolades, awards and appointments Professor Rust has received, this is among the most noteworthy.”
Andrew Sobanet, interim dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.
Prior to joining Georgetown, Rust held positions at the University of Maryland, Yale University and the University of Wisconsin. In 2014, he was appointed the Gallagher Family Professor of Economics at Georgetown. Rust earned a bachelor’s in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1977 and a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983.
–Kelyn Soong