Ben Bernanke, born on December 13, 1953, is an economist who currently serves as the chairman of the
Federal Reserve's Board of Governors (i.e. Fed chair). Bernanke assumed his current position on February 1, 2006, and has been responsible for overseeing the Federal Reserve during the most recent financial crisis in the United States. Before becoming chairman of the Federal Reserve, Bernanke served on its Board of Governors from 2002-2005. Bernanke was also confirmed for a second term as Fed chair on January 28, 2010.
Ben Bernanke received his Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979 and went on to take faculty positions at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (1979-1985) and Princeton University. He was the chair of the Economics department at Princeton from 1996-2002, when he left academia to work in the public sector.
As a macroeconomist, Bernanke has focused much of his academic work on the economic and political causes of the Great Depression.
