James M. Buchanan (1919- )

James M. Buchanan was born on October 3, 1919, in Murfeesboro, Tennessee. He grew up on a farm in this area of the United States. His post-secondary school education consists of a B.A. degree from Middle Tennessee State University (1940), an M.A. degree in economics from the University of Tennessee (1941), and a Ph.D. degree in economics from the University of Chicago (1948). He served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific during World War II, where he received a Bronze Star. He has taught at the following universities: Tennessee, Florida State, Virginia, University of California, Los Angeles, Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI), and George Mason University where he still works today. He also maintains an office at VPI. He has held endowed chairs in economics at Virginia, VPI, and George Mason University. He was Department Chair at Florida State. He was Department Chair and Director and cofounder of the Thomas Jefferson Center for Political Economy at Virginia. He was General Director of the Center for Study of Public Choice at both VPI and George Mason. He has also served as a visiting professor at the University of Miami, Brigham Young University, the London School of Economics, and Cambridge University. He spent a year in Italy as a Fulbright Research Scholar. He is a former President of the Mont Pelerin Society, the Western Economic Association, and the Southern Economic Association. He has been awarded many honorary doctorates, including those from the University of Catania and the New University of Lisbon. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association. He received the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1986, the last year the award was tax free in the United States.