Honoring Robert F. Dernberger
Robert F. Dernberger, director of CCS from 1983-1986 and again from 1991-94, passed away in March of this year. To honor his long and distinguished career in Chinese economics, LRCCS is hosting a symposium titled "China's Economy Today: The New Normal and Old Challenges." Many of his former students and colleagues will be speaking at the panel held on Friday, October 30th at R2220 Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
Registration will be open until October 16th; more info can be found on the LRCCS website.
Below is his retirement memoir written by the University of Michigan Board of Regents in 1995:
“Regents’ Proceedings, May 1995, p323:
Robert F. Dernberger, professor of economics, will retire from active faculty status on May 31, 1995, after a most productive career in teaching and research.
A native of Michigan, Professor Dernberger learned Chinese while serving in the U.S. Army from 1950-53. He earned his B.A degree (1955), his M.A degree in Far Eastern studies (1956), his M.A. degree in economics (1958) at the University of Michigan, and his Ph.D. degree in economics (1965) at Harvard University. He was an assistant professor at the University of Chicago from 1963-68. Professor Dernberger joined the faculty of the University of Michigan as an associate professor of economics in 1968 and was promoted to professor in 1974. He served two terms as director of the Center for Chinese Studies: i 1983-86, and more recently in 1991-94.
Professor Dernberger is one of the world’s foremost experts on the Chinese economy. His teaching and research have centered on the field of comparative economic systems, with emphasis on the distinctive mechanisms that have operated in China under communism. He has served as editor of Economic Development and Cultural Change, as chair of the Social Science Research Council, and as president of the Association of Comparative Economic Studies. He has been a member of more than ten research delegations to the People’s Republic of China, and has served on a number of panels, councils, and committees focused on China.
An active participant in departmental and university affairs, Professor Dernberger has been associate chair of the Department of Economics and a member of the Senate Assemblyo He is currently a senior faculty associate of the William Davidson Institute. Professor Dernberger’s scholarly writings include numerous contributions to journals and volumes dealing with Chinese development and the functioning of Chinese communism. In recent years, as China’s economy has evolved toward greater reliance on markets, he has turned more toward issues of transition in the Chinese economy. Most recently, he has been working on an ambitious project, “China in Time and Space.”
The Regents now salute this distinguished economist for his dedicated service by naming Robert F. Dernberger professor emeritus of economics.”
