Samuelson, Paul Anthony (1915-2009), was an American economist who won the 1970 Nobel Prize in economic sciences. In Foundations of Economic Analysis (1947), Samuelson showed the underlying unity of many economic principles and encouraged the use of mathematics in economic analysis. He revolutionized the teaching of economics by presenting the most advanced economic thinking at the introductory level. His college textbook Economics: An Introductory Analysis, first published in 1948, became the largest-selling economics textbook in the world.
Samuelson was born on May 15, 1915, in Gary, Indiana. He taught economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1940 to 1986. In the early 1960’s, Samuelson served as economic adviser to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Samuelson died on Dec. 13, 2009.
