UW professor wins Reimer Lüst Award

Professor Daniel W. Bromley has received the Reimer Lüst Award for International Scholarly and Cultural Exchange.

The award is given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Fritz Thyssen Foundation to recognize outstanding humanities scholars and social scientists who have promoted bilateral relations between Germany and their own countries.

Bromley, an emeritus professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, found out about the award, fittingly, in November while teaching at Humboldt University of Berlin.

 “I was really stunned,” Bromley says.

Award winners are invited to spend up to a year in Germany and given 50,000 Euros ($74,000) to help with expenses. They also have the opportunity to conduct research projects of their choosing with specialist colleagues in Germany. The award will be given at a June ceremony hosted by the president of Germany. Only two awards are given annually.

Bromley spent five months in Germany last year along with his wife, Joyce, who is a historian writing a book about East Germany.

“I’ve been in Germany enough that it’s my second home in many respects,” Bromley says. “It’s wonderful. Some parts north of Berlin look like southern or western Wisconsin.”

Bromley is from Phoenix, Ariz., but started traveling abroad shortly after coming to UW–Madison to teach in 1969. His first trip was a month in the Soviet Union. He’s since worked in more than 25 countries.

Bromley’s international work includes serving as a consultant to the Global Environment Facility, the World Bank, the Ford Foundation, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Asian Development Bank and the Ministry for the Environment in New Zealand.  He was also an advisor in the 1990s to Nelson Mandela’s party in South Africa during apartheid.

His first time in Germany was 1972 and since he’s seen many changes. Part of what he’s interesting in is studying the global effects of different economic systems.

“Germany is the largest and richest economy in Europe,” Bromley says. “For me, it’s a fascinating laboratory of economic design.”