Abhijit Banerjee education and career path: The Indian-origin Nobel laureate in economics now set to join University of Zurich

In July 2026, Abhijit Banerjee and his wife, Esther Duflo, will join the University of Zurich to establish a new center for development economics. The Lemann Center for Development, Education, and Public Policy is funded by a 26 million franc donation from the Lemann Foundation. While taking on this new role, the couple will maintain part-time positions at MIT , continuing their work at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. Abhijit Banerjee was born in Mumbai to a Bengali father and a Marathi mother. His father, Dipak Banerjee, taught economics at Presidency College in Calcutta, while his mother, Nirmala Banerjee, was a professor at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences. From an early age, Banerjee showed a quiet determination in his studies and a curiosity that spanned subje