The National Institute of Social Sciences presented Gold Honor Medal Awards to Columbia University President Emeritus Michael Sovern and Two Others at the Century Association
By Susan A. Gitelson, Ph.D.
Susan A. Gitelson, Ph.D.
The National Institute of Social Sciences presented Gold Honor Medal Awards to Ron Chernow, author of “Alexander Hamilton;” Robert J. Schiller, Nobel Prize winner in Economics; and Michael I. Sovern, President Emeritus of Columbia University, at its dinner on November 14, 2017. The National Institute, which was founded in 1912, held its 103rd gold medal dinner at the Century Association in New York City.
Chernow, who has become famous because his Hamilton book was the basis of the award-winning musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, concentrated in his talk on his latest biography about President Ulysses S. Grant. This commanding general of the Union side during the U.S. Civil War, Chernow said, was determined to end slavery even more than to preserve the union. Chernow told me during the reception that he is in negotiations to have “Grant” made into a movie.
Schiller, who had done extensive research on the stock market, warned in 2000 in “Irrational Exuberance,” that the stock market boom was caused by excessive speculation and could lead to a bust. In later editions, he warned that the same situation applied to real estate and to bonds.
Sovern is now Chancellor Kent Professor of Law at Columbia after a distinguished career he has written about in “An Improbable Life: My Sixty Years at Columbia and Other Adventures.” #
