HEC Honoris Causa Daniel Kahneman Passes Away

90 year-old Daniel Kahneman is no more. He died on March 26, announced his partner Barbara Tversky. On October 7, 2022, HEC had the immense honor of welcoming Professor Kahneman to its campus to award him an Honorary Doctorate for his lifetime achievements in the fields of psychology and economics. Kahneman's witty and humane live exchange with his co-author, HEC Paris Professor Olivier Sibony, will live long in the memories of the students, professors, management and staff of the school present that day.

“You know, pessimism has a silver lining to it. You are never disappointed and you are often pleasantly surprised. I define myself as a cheerful pessimist.” Just one of the many magical moments during the 2022 ceremony with the Princeton scholar who redefined the field of economy between the 1970s and 2020s. It centered on an exchange with HEC Professor of Strategy Olivier Sibony in the Blondeau Amphitheater. Now both this historic venue and irrepressible scholar are no more. A fellow-author of the bestselling 2021 book “Noise” and long-time collaborator, Sibony, shared his emotions in the early hours of this morning: “To me and to many who had the incredible good fortune of collaborating with him, this giant was also the most wonderful of friends.” He continued: “Danny wrote that ‘nothing in life is as important as you think it is when you’re thinking about it’. This does not seem to apply to losing him. I miss him already.” Sibony invited his followers to read the New York Times obituary to Kahneman and his legacy.

HEC Professor Itzhak Gilboa also introduced Kahneman to the HEC community. The Economics and Decisions Sciences specialist knew the Princeton academic since his days as a Ph.D. student. Gilboa had invited him to his annual D-TEA conference in 2020 on Kahneman’s prospect theory: “I recall him telling me, back in the mid-90s, that this or that was ‘much more important than Prospect Theory’. There aren’t many researchers who would say such a thing about the work that made them so famous.”

At the doctorate ceremony two years ago, fellow-academic Mohammed Abellaoui, Professor in Economics and Decision Sciences, testified: “From my Ph.D. thesis until today, I was continuously inspired by the work of Kahneman and (fellow Nobel laureate, ed) Amos Tversky.” Several other top academics from the business school opened the conference with homages to Kahneman’s enduring impact on their research and teaching. We encourage readers to remind ourselves of the strong bonds that will forever tie HEC to this remarkable scholar, his wit, his “pess-optimism”, his modesty and his enduring devotion to the field of economics. They were crowned by a Nobel Prize in 2002. The ceremony and article are modest testimony to these qualities.