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SENDHIL MULLAINATHAN is Professor of Economics at Harvard. In 2011, he was appointed by the U.S. Treasury Department to serve as Assistant Director for Research at The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Prior to joining the CFPB, he was a co-founder of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab; a Board Member of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development; and Executive Director of Ideas 42, Institute of Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University.

He conducts research on development economics, behavioral economics, and corporate finance. His work concerns creating a psychology of people to improve poverty alleviation programs in developing countries.

He has received a MacArthur Foundation "genius award," as well as numerous other grants and fellowships, including from the National Science Foundation, the Olin Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, and the Russell Sage Foundation. He has published extensively in top economics journals including the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Journal of Political Economy. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University.