Miltos Makris

Miltos Makris (1970-2022) obtained his PhD in 1999 at the University of Essex. He taught at the universities of Bristol, Exeter, Leicester, Southampton and Kent before finally joining again the University of Essex as Professor of Economics in 2021. He was one of the co-founders of the Workshops in Economic Theory in 2013, which in 2020, during the pandemic, became a weekly online seminar series, called the Virtual Seminars in Economic Theory (VSET).

Miltos passed away in October 2022. In 2023, the in-person workshop returned and it is now called the Makris Symposium in Economic Theory, dedicated to his memory. Moreover, VSET continues as weekly online seminar series.

Miltos was an unusually broad economist, capable of making deep theoretical contributions in microeconomics and macroeconomics, but also interested in applications in varied fields such as public finance, political economics and, more recently, economic epidemiology. His curiosity was almost limitless, and he had no qualms about starting to work in a new field, and teach himself new tools, in pursuit of a new research idea.

Miltos had a profound impact on those who knew him. He was an extremely sociable and generous person, with an infectious sense of humour, the ability to appreciate not just the big but also the small joys of life, and he never let setbacks dampen his optimism. He had a deep love for his family and was a loyal friend. His passing at such a young age leaves all of us with a deep sense of sorrow, but we feel very privileged to have shared our time with him and to have been his friends. 

For a list of his publications, click here.