Joel Mokyr is the Robert H. Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Economics and History, Northwestern University. He works on the economic history of Europe, and specializes in the period 1750-1914. His current research is concerned with the understanding of the economic and intellectual roots of technological progress and the growth of useful knowledge in European societies, as well as the impact that industrialization and economic progress have had on economic welfare. He is editor-in-chief of the Princeton University Press Economic History of the Western World, and the Oxford University Press Encyclopedia of Economic History and served as President of the Economic History Association. He is the winner (2006) of the biennial Heineken Award for History offered by the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences.