It's the time of year when the winners of the 2015 Nobel Prizes are announced, to recognise extraordinary achievements in the sciences and humanities. We're introducing the winners below and sharing some information about their incredible work.

ERSA Office Louvain-La-Neuve BELGIUM 25th AUGUST 2015

Win a selfie stick by sharing your experience here! “Selfie” was declared a word of the year in 2013 as a result of a seventeen thousand per cent increase in usage. But selfies have, arguably, shifted from being the product of a purely narcissistic act to that of a normalised cultural phenomenon – even celebrities and politicians indulge in the not-so-occasional self-portrait.

Following our highly discussed list of 30 Top Twitter Feeds in Economics and Finance, we wanted to keep the conversation going by sharing our selection of top Twitter feeds in political science. This list includes academics, researchers, journalists and many others who focus on political science, politics, international relations, public policy and related fields.

At just after 1pm CET today, The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2014 was awarded to Jean Marcel Tirole of Toulouse, France. This prize, more commonly known as the Nobel Prize in Economics, was given to Dr. Tirole for his extensive work on the behavior of large companies in relation to market power and regulation.

In previous posts we’ve offered lists of top blogs in the fields of economics and finance. In this post we’re shifting our focus to the broad world of mathematics. As with economics and finance, mathematics encompasses quite a diverse array of subdisciplines, meaning that this list of blogs gathers together a range of perspectives, experiences and areas of expertise. Whether you’re interested in gaining teaching tips for algebra or discussing the latest publications in top mathematics journals, these bloggers cover it all. This is by no means an exhaustive list, however, and we encourage you to add your own suggestions or ideas in the comments section here or on Facebook. The blogs listed here are shown in alphabetical order, meaning they are not ranked or grouped in any other way.

When we conducted an informal survey of economists about a year and a half ago (published in this blog post), only slightly more than 20% said they regularly used Twitter. In the time since, however, Twitter has gained ground as a useful and prominent thread within the social media fabric, particularly for professionals looking to network and make connections.

In the third interview in the Experts Talk series, UMass Amherst Professor Emeritus, New York Times Economix contributor and leading feminist economist Dr. Nancy Folbre discusses the importance of interdisciplinarity, the overconfidence economics has in the individual pursuit of self-interest and what she learned from reading the comments section on her New York Times pieces, among other topics.

Continuing with last month’s topic, it is known that quality information increases student interest in universities. We pointed out the relevance of giving detailed information in the promotion of programs, courses and scholarships. If a prospective student finds quality information and thereby recognizes the value of an institution, he or she is more likely to apply and stay engaged with the university over a lifetime. So how else can universities provide information to their candidates?

The infamous opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) was held today in Seoul, South Korea where Maryam Mirzakhani was awarded the Fields Medal, the most prestigious and honorable prize in the vast field of mathematics. Mirzakhani, an admired professor from the Departments of Mathematics at Stanford University in California, is the first female winner of the distinguished award that was established in 1936.

When a student chooses a program, it’s not only a decision about a subject and place of study, but also a choice regarding future career. Such a choice has a big impact on students’ dreams, plans, budgets and decisions that affect their personal and social life for at least the next 2 or 4 years.

Based on our experience here at INOMICS, as well as by examining site usage statistics, we can confirm that the click through rate (CTR) on Standard jobs advertised in summer is significantly higher than throughout the rest of the year.

We spoke with Dr. Dolan about his crossover interests in Russian literature and economics (and how he made that combination work to his advantage), his experience working in Moscow during the last years of the Soviet Union and why he recommends the MBA degree, among other topics.

Globalization has changed the panorama of the education, giving more options to students to choose the place where they want to study next. Nowadays, students from all over the world can enroll in a program in destinations they had never imagined. Moreover, high quality of education, career options and discovering of new cultures encourage young people to increase the percentage of foreign students at prestigious universities around the globe.

In a post about the Olympics this past winter, we mentioned research linking the economic development of a country to its chances of taking home a large number medals in the Games. While it might seem reasonable to extend this logic to the World Cup, in-depth econometric and statistical analysis indicates otherwise. So how can we best predict who will come out on top in this year’s World Cup?

In a 2012 post on Top Apps for Economists, we noted that the word “app” was becoming integrated into our daily lives. Two years later, I’d say it’s achieved a solid place in contemporary vocabulary. Yet, while you may not think twice about using an app to check a train schedule, buy a movie ticket or peruse Facebook, you still might not be aware of the plethora of great academic and professional apps available as well.

While everyone knows how important a good spot in the major rankings lists can be for recruiting top-notch students, another type of ranking is gaining in momentum that deserves widespread recognition as well. In the digital era we find ourselves in, it’s only appropriate that cyber rankings be given weight within a school’s overall reputation. To do well on this scale means more than just having a flashy website, however; it means creating a user-friendly, active and interactive online presence for your institution, while retaining staff who publish widely and share their work and ideas with the public via online platforms.

Last year, we conducted a global survey of nearly 800 academics, asking questions about budget cuts at their respective institutions for fiscal year 2013, and their expectations for 2014. We wanted to get a sense of the climate around the world in terms of who is still being affected by the economic downturn, and to what extent, in order to better grasp the daily reality for both employers and job seekers.

Although students and young professionals know that internships can be a great way to gain experience and help fill up their CVs, sometimes employers might not realize that hiring interns can be equally important for them and their organization. In order to highlight the ways in which internships can be mutually beneficial, we’d like to focus on three key reasons why hiring interns is advantageous for any organization.

While we of course hope you find our own blog to be a great and engaging resource, we recognize that there are copious noteworthy blogs out there focusing specifically on the world of finance. For this post, we’ve gathered a list of 50 Finance related blogs for you to peruse.

This April 1st, we figured we’d spare you another bogus announcement or unfortunate attempt at a corporate joke and instead delve into the murky place where economics and humor intersect. If all you’re hoping for is a few economist jokes, (like the classic “Three Economists Go Hunting” jab we highlighted in a previous entry), then don’t worry, you’ll find some of those at the end of the post.

While today might just be another Monday for most of us around the world, for the nearly 37 million claiming Irish ancestry (more than 8 times the current population of Ireland), for many living on the Emerald Isle and for those who might just be interested in donning some green and downing a Guinness, St. Patrick’s Day is a beloved holiday. Following in the vein of such posts as Christmas Economics and Halloween Economics, we wanted to get in on the St. Paddy’s fun, but of course with an economics twist.

As of 2011, significantly more women than men completed secondary education in an astounding 32 of the 34 OECD member countries, according to a study by OECD researchers. On average, women accounted for 58% of graduates overall, though the range between countries is quite great. Moreover, the numbers vary tremendously across disciplines, with the areas of health & welfare and arts & humanities still heavily female, while math & science remain overwhelmingly male.