Barry R. Chiswick is Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS), George Washington University (since 2011). Until 2010 he was UIC Distinguished Professor (since 2002)and Research Professor (since 1978) of the Department of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). He was Department Head from 1987 to 2008. In addition, he was Research Professor in the Department of Sociology and in the Survey Research Laboratory at UIC and Founding Director of the UIC Center for Economic Education (2000). From 2004 until 2011 he was Program Director for Migration Studies at IZA. He is co-recipient of the 2011 IZA Prize in Labor Economics.

Professor Chiswick received his Ph.D. with Distinction in Economics from Columbia University (1967) and has held permanent and visiting appointments at UCLA, Columbia University, CUNY, Stanford University, Princeton University, Hebrew University (Jerusalem), Tel Aviv University, University of Haifa, and on four occasions the University of Chicago. From 1973 to 1977 he was Senior Staff Economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. He is a former chairman of the American Statistical Association Census Advisory Committee, and past President of the European Society for Population Economics, the Midwest Economics Association and the Illinois Economics Association, and a consultant to numerous U.S. government agencies, as well as to the World Bank and other international organizations. He is currently Associate Editor of the Journal of Population Economics and Research in Economics of the Household, and on the editorial boards of four additional academic journals.

Professor Chiswick has an international reputation for his research in Labor Economics, Human Resources, the Economics of Immigration, the Economics of Minorities, the Economics of Language, Economics of Religion, and Income Distribution. He is recognized as having done the seminal research on the Economics of Immigration, and continues to be the leader in the field. His research has been published in 14 books and monographs and in over 140 scholarly journal articles and chapters in books, in addition to other publications. His latest book is The Economics of Language (with Paul W. Miller), Routledge, 2007. His research is cited frequently in textbooks and in the academic literature. In addition to numerous seminar and conference presentations in the United States, Professor Chiswick has lectured in 22 other countries.

Professor Chiswick has received numerous awards for his research, including an appointment as Distinguished Professor at UIC, a Fulbright (Research) Fellowship, the Senior University Scholar Award from the University of Illinois, the UIC College of Business Administration Alumni Award for Distinguished Research (first recipient), the Carleton C. Qualey Article Award from the Immigration History Society (first recipient), the Milken Institute Award for Distinguished Economic Research, and the Marshall Sklare Award from the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry. He delivered the Julian Simon Lecture (2007) at the IZA Annual Migration Meeting in Bonn. He also received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Brooklyn College (1999) for his research on immigrants and minorities.

Professor Chiswick is frequently interviewed by the print and electronic media on a range of labor market issues, especially immigration and minorities. He has published policy analyses of these issues in newspapers and magazines, has testified before Congress on pending legislation, and given public lectures to community groups on these and related issues. His policy recommendations regarding the reform of immigration law have influenced the public debate and legislation.