Prime time: IU professor follows up Nobel Prize with spot on Time magazine’s top 100

One morning, IU professor Elinor Ostrom woke to a long-distance phone call at 6:30 a.m. and found out she had won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

The Prize then propelled Ostrom into the public eye, and she has now been named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people. This list recognizes leaders “who are using their ideas, their visions, their actions to transform the world and have an effect on a multitude of people,” according to a press release.

Ostrom said she was surprised to receive the award. 
 
“I’m very appreciative,” she said.

Ostrom moved to Bloomington in 1965 when her husband of 47 years, Vincent Ostrom, was hired at IU.

That fall, the University needed someone to teach Intro to American Government, and Ostrom was hired as a visiting professor. She then became a graduate advisor during the Vietnam War.

“I had to defend students who protested,” she said. “I was myself opposed to the Vietnam War but did not go out to the streets.”

In 1973, Ostrom and her husband co-founded the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, a research center where researchers from many different fields collaborate.

“We were able to do interdisciplinary work here and able to create the workshop,” she said. “We encouraged people to work together at multi-stages. It’s still going very strong.”

Ostrom said it is important for individuals across academic disciplines to work together to increase sustainability. She said she recently put solar panes on the roof of her garage and “tries like mad” to turn off the heat when she leaves the office.

“If we don’t work on it and take it seriously, nothing will happen,” she said.

“Cumulatively, we can make a difference. There’s no one scale that will solve all the problems of global warming, and that’s getting more recognized, and that’s something the workshop has contributed to.”

Michael McGinnis, director of the workshop, has been working with Ostrom since 1985.
“I was very pleased to hear Lin was given this recognition,” he said. “I think it couldn’t have happened to a better person.”

McGinnis said he thinks Time was impressed with Ostrom’s study of community and collective economics and the way this research can help combat global climate change.

“Lin gives a unique perspective on climate change policy,” he said. “Her work reminds us of the important effects citizens can have on problems of the global scope.”

Postdoctorate researcher Michael Cox has known Ostrom for about seven years, and she served as his professor until about a year and a half ago.

“She illustrates that you should bring emotional energy to what you do,” Cox said. “I’ve never met another person in my life who has that buoyant energy day in and day out.”