BOSTON July 19: Noted academician Gita Gopinath has been named professor of economics at the prestigious Harvard University, becoming the first Indian-origin woman professor in the institution's history.

Gopinath, 38, has been a member of the Harvard faculty since 2005 and was named associate professor in 2009. Her focus area is business cycles in emerging markets and price fluctuations across international borders.

"Professor Gopinath's research on emerging markets has proven extremely important to our understanding of their business cycles and her studies of price stickiness have been highly influential among macroeconomists," dean of social science in Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences Stephen Kosslyn said here.

Gopinath's research has examined price stickiness at the US border, addressing questions on whether prices are set in the producer's or the consumer's currency and how this transnational pricing responds to exchange rate shocks.

University President Drew G Faust had confirmed tenure for Gopinath in May, making her only the second internally promoted woman full professor and the third woman to be tenured full professor in the department.

"On campus, she has played a central role in the vitality of our programme in international economics and especially in teaching and advising students in this field," Kosslyn added.

A University of Delhi alumnus, Kolkata-born Gopinath has a Ph.D in economics from Princeton University.

She was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.

She is also an associate of the National Bureau for Economic Research, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the International Growth Centre at the London School of Economics and Oxford University.

Earlier this month, IIT alumnus Nitin Nohria took over as the 10th Dean of Harvard Business School (HBS). At HBS itself, Nohria is among some 25 teachers of Indian-origin in a faculty of just over 200.

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen is currently the Thomas W Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard.