Gordon Rausser. Photo by Keegan Houser.
Congratulations to Gordon Rausser, a professor emeritus in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ARE) and former dean of the College, who was named the 2025 UC Berkeley Distinguished Emeritus of the Year. Bestowed by the UC Berkeley Emeriti Association (UCBEA), the award recognizes the accomplishments and contributions of a retired faculty member since retiring. "Gordon's continued research, teaching and service on and off campus make us all wonder if he has retired from anything!" wrote Professor emeritus Steve Martin, president of UCBEA in a message about the award.
Since retiring from ARE in 2019, Professor Rausser has made extraordinary contributions to UC Berkeley through sustained public service and strategic leadership. He chaired the pivotal faculty committee that shaped the university’s partnership with NASA at Moffett Field and led its follow-up development strategy, presenting key findings to the Regents, Chancellor’s Cabinet, and Council of Deans. This leadership helped to shape UC Berkeley's engagement with NASA and created a vision for the development of research and development (R&D) and instructional activities in collaboration with private partners at NASA Ames' Moffett Field in Mountain View.
As a co-chair of Berkeley’s most successful development campaign, he helped raise over $7.3 billion—personally giving a transformational gift to his beloved college. His work on public-private research partnerships continues to influence the campus innovation strategy and entrepreneurial programs and activities.
More recently, with the inauguration of Chancellor Rich Lyons, Professor Rausser was asked to serve as a pro-bono advisor to the Office of Intellectual Property & Industry Research Alliances.
Professor Rausser’s most significant post-retirement academic achievement is his development of a new framework for understanding and guiding government policy design, culminating in his forthcoming delivery of the Galbraith Keynote Address at the 2025 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association’s annual meeting—one of the highest scholarly honors of his discipline.
In 2020, Rausser was named a Berkeley Fellow and awarded the Berkeley Citation, which is awarded to a variety of distinguished individuals or organizations, academic or nonacademic, whose contributions to UC Berkeley go beyond the call of duty and whose achievements exceed the standards of excellence in their fields.
His enduring impact exemplifies the highest standard of emeritus service and institutional stewardship.
Read more about the award and past recipients on the Emeriti Association website, or learn more about Rausser and his career in this biography or by viewing videos of the 2019 Festschrift held in his honor.