News

Remembering Christopher A. Sims

17 March, 2026

We are deeply saddened by the passing of Professor Christopher A. Sims, a Nobel laureate and a longtime friend of CERGE-EI. Professor Sims served as a member of CERGE-EI’s Executive and Supervisory Committee and, through his counsel, generosity, and personal engagement, contributed to the institution’s success and development.

Professor Sims’s relationship with CERGE-EI was personal. In 2012, shortly after receiving the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, he delivered a public lecture at CERGE-EI called “Current Macroeconomics and Reality.” His visit was a memorable moment for our community and an inspiration to students, faculty, and the wider economics profession in the Czech Republic.

He returned to Prague in 2017, when he was awarded the honorary degree of doctor honoris causa by Charles University. The distinction recognized not only his extraordinary contributions to economics, but also the deep respect in which he was held by the academic community.

For CERGE-EI, Christopher Sims was far more than one of the defining economists of his generation. He was also a cherished colleague, mentor, and friend. CERGE-EI Director Marek Kapička paid tribute to him: “Chris Sims was a towering figure in macroeconomics, whose work fundamentally reshaped how empirical research is done in the field. At CERGE-EI, we are deeply grateful for the many years he so generously dedicated to our institution. We will miss him dearly.”

Filip Matějka, Associate Professor at CERGE-EI, who earned his PhD at Princeton University under Sims’s guidance, added: “Chris was a dear friend who inspired and helped generations of economists grow. He was a central figure in building modern empirical macroeconomics, whose contributions to knowledge and science were monumental.”

Yet those who knew him will remember not only his brilliance, but also his humanity. In Filip Matějka’s words, “Above all, Chris was an exceptional human being — kind, fair, generous, and quietly inspiring to everyone around him. Together with his wife Cathie, they were a loving team that cared deeply for many people and for the world around them.”

As Filip Matějka, who coauthored with Christopher Sims, also recalls, “The entire CERGE-EI community is deeply grateful for his decade-long service, and for his many interactions and visits to Prague, through which he helped nurture the field of economics in the Czech Republic.”

Professor Sims' presence enriched our institution, our students, and our broader intellectual community. We will miss him dearly and remember him with great fondness, admiration, and gratitude for having been part of his life.