Suzanne (Andersen) Scotchmer

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Category: Obituaries

Created on Friday, 07 February 2014 13:41

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Suzanne (Andersen) Scotchmer, formerly of Sitka, passed away at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley, Calif., on  Jan. 30, 2014. She was 64 years old.
Suzanne was born to Toivo and Margaret Andersen on Jan. 23, 1950, in Seattle, Wash.
She grew up in Pelican, and in 1963 her family moved to Sitka so she and her brother could attend Sitka High School. Classmates still remember her quick mind and vibrant and adventurous personality.
After graduating in 1967, Suzanne attended the University of Washington, graduating in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. She spent the following year touring Europe. 
She completed her education at the University of California at Berkeley, earning a master’s degree in statistics in 1979 and a PhD in economics in 1980.
She joined the Harvard Economics Department as an associate and later assistant professor from 1981 to 1985. She returned to UC Berkeley’s Economics Department in 1986 and was promoted to full professor in 1995. Suzanne held additional appointments at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy from 1989 and the Berkeley Law School from 2008.
Suzanne was a versatile and gifted scholar who made fundamental contributions to evolutionary game theory, club theory, and innovation economics. She is perhaps best known for her “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants” paper which provided the first rigorous analysis of how patent systems should allocate rewards when multiple inventors develop a shared technology.  Her 2004 book “Innovation & Incentive” (MIT Press) remains the classic introduction to the field.
Suzanne was a leading figure in the worldwide economics community. Her work included extended stays as a visiting scholar and/or teacher at Harvard University, the New School of Economics in Moscow, Stockholm School of Economics, University of Auckland, University of Cergy-Pontoise (Paris), Tel Aviv University, University of Paris I (The Sorbonne), New York University, the University of Toronto,  University of Southern California,  University of California at Los Angeles and the Toulouse School of Economics.
She received honorary doctorates from the University of Basel in 2012 and the University of Washington in 2013.
Suzanne also provided extensive advice to U.S. policymakers as a member of multiple National Academy of Sciences panels, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, and a scholar in residence at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. 
Suzanne loved Sitka and returned often to spend time with her family, friends, and Alaska’s magnificent outdoor life. She was planning to retire and move back to Sitka at the time of her death.
She is survived by her long time partner and friend Steve Maurer, her brother Alan Andersen, her niece, Greta Andersen, and her nephew, Jaycen Andersen. She will also be missed by many cousins, friends, and colleagues from around the world.
Her smile and love for life will be greatly missed.
Friends and family will hold a private memorial later this year. The family requests contributions to the American Cancer Society in lieu of flowers.
“We have given the world our passion, We have naught for death but toys,” – W.B. Yeats

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