Nobel Laureate Card to Deliver 3rd Annual Pong S. Lee Lecture
ALBANY, N.Y. (Oct. 2, 2025) —The University at Albany’s Department of Economics will welcome Nobel Prize–winning economist David Card for the third annual Pong S. Lee Memorial Lecture on Tuesday, Oct. 7, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center Recital Hall.
Card, the Class of 1950 Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, shared the 2021 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his pioneering empirical contributions to labor economics. His research, which often uses natural experiments, has reshaped understanding of minimum wages, immigration, education and inequality, challenging long-held assumptions about how labor markets operate.
“Professor Card’s work represents the very best of economics: rigorous research that addresses pressing questions in society,” said Professor and Chair of Economics Pinka Chatterji. “We are honored to have him deliver this year’s Pong S. Lee Memorial Lecture, and we look forward to welcoming our campus and community to engage with his ideas.”
About the Lecture Series
The Pong S. Lee Memorial Lecture honors the late Professor Pong S. Lee, who taught economics at UAlbany for more than 30 years. Lee was a dedicated scholar and mentor who left a lasting impact on the department, his colleagues and generations of students. The lecture series was established in 2021 through generous gifts from Seung Park ’73, ’74, a former PhD student of Lee’s, to support an annual lecture by a distinguished economist.
The inaugural lecture in 2023 featured Professor David Autor, a world leader in the study of labor-market impacts of technological change and globalization on job polarization, skill demands, earnings levels and inequality. Last year’s lecture was delivered by Princeton University’s Janet Currie, whose research on child health and well-being has influenced public policy on early childhood education, maternal health and environmental justice.
Card continues that tradition as one of the most influential labor economists of his generation, with work that has shaped both academic research and real-world policymaking across the globe.