Ronald Tress Memorial Lecture

Established in 2012, the Ronald Tress Memorial Lecture is an annual event honouring Ronald Tress (1915-2006), the Master of Birkbeck from 1968 to 1977 and a hugely influential economist.

From 1941 to 1945, Tress was Economic Adviser to the British War Cabinet and he played a vital role in the development of the post-war Marshall Plan for Western European economic recovery. He was also Professor of Political Economy at the University of Bristol. In 1978 he was appointed Director of the Leverhulme Trust.

Tress established the Economics Department at Birkbeck and our scholarly community honours his legacy and contribution to the world of economics by inviting a leading figure in the field to speak on the pressing issues affecting society today.

2023

Professor Jagjit S. Chadha, Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR): What went wrong with 21st Century Economic Policy - a view from Westminster.

Previous Lectures

• 2022 - Chris Giles: 'Let's talk about economics'
• 2021 - Paul Johnson: 'Johnson on Johnson'
• 2019 - Silvana Tenreyro: 'Understanding inflation: expectations and reality (video)'.
• 2018 - Professor Sir Adrian Smith, FRS: 'The challenges of Big Data'.
• 2017 - Professor Wendy Carlin, CBE: 'Trump, Brexit and economics'.
• 2016 - John McDonnell, MP: An audience with John McDonnell. 
• 2015 - Lord David Currie: 'The reformed UK competition and consumer regime: a new legal framework for a changing marketplace'. 
• 2014 - Neale Coleman, CBE: 'Economic regeneration and the impact of major sporting events'.
• 2013 - Geoff Mulgan: 'How can we make the economy more innovative and creative - and reduce the risks of monopoly, predation and harm?'. 
• 2012 - Professor Ron Smith: 'Military economics: defence choices for the UK'.