Ideas and Lives Bob Lerman and Zvi Bodie

David begins by highlighting the background of his parents, how they met in Mexico, and their careers. He discusses his elementary and high school experience in San Antonio and his first national award. He describes how he chose Harvard among other schools at a time when Harvard was not a dominant brand. David provides examples of his intellectually stimulating time at Harvard and then turns to his subsequent decision to enter law school instead of medical school. His early career as an attorney contributed to his finding his wife Ellen and convincing her to marry. David makes interesting points about enjoying courtroom litigation and the jury system. The session concludes with David's innovative practice of taking each child to countries with special histories but only after the children did their homework in reading about the countries.

William Raduchel describes growing up in Houghton County, Michigan, as it evolved from a prosperous to a declining area. Starting from a local college, Michigan Tech, a school focused on engineering, on to Michigan State and then to many roles at Harvard, Bill gained a mastery of economics, computer science, and engineering. His career made fascinating transition from automating Harvard's admissions, to creating special software for economic analysis, to achieving top positions at McGraw Hill, Xeros, Sun Microsystems and AOL Time Warner. He explains why some companies grew with technology while others were unable to make technology work for their business success. Bill concludes with perspectives on the growth of Artificial Intelligence and its likely impacts. He explores these and other issues in his forthcoming book, The New Technology State.

State Senator Jim Rosapepe describes where and how he grew up, his heritage, his early interest in politics, and the beginnings of his business career and entrepreneurship. He then turns to the relationships he built in politics, business, and foreign affairs. Jim's role in the Italian support for President Bill Clinton is one of his many interesting stories. Finally, he explains his success in the legislative process in Maryland and his renewed interest in apprenticeships for America.

Eytan Sheshinski describes growing up in Haifa, Israel with parents who emigrated from Germany and Switzerland in the 1930s to a kibbutz.  While initially joining a kibbutz and understanding economics from a Marxist perspective, Eytan talks of his excitement in learning modern economics first at Hebrew University under famed Israel economist Don Patinkin and later at MIT.  After building a strong research record in public economics as a highly respected professor of economics, he served without pay as the head of two commissions to ensure that the Israeli public obtained its fair share of profits from oil, gas, and potash resources.  Eytan discusses the challenges he faced and the ultimate satisfaction he derived from his public service.

Diane Jones describes coming from a Baltimore family of modest means, attending a state college, and becoming a community college professor as she followed her deep interest in science.   Her experience at the National Science Foundation led to new programs and ultimately productive years as a Congressional staffer.  In her last public position, Diane served as Deputy Secretary of Education.

Stephen Goss describes his transition from a math major in college with an interest in economics to his career as an actuary.  He discusses the approach used by the Social Security Administration to estimate long-term costs and outlays for benefits based on trends in the economy and in the demographic make-up of the US.