ELINOR OSTROM is Distinguished Professor, Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science, and Senior Research Director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University, Bloomington; and Founding Director, Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity, Arizona State University. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, and a recipient of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2009, Reimar Lust Award for International Scholarly and Cultural Exchange, the Elazar Distinguished Federalism Scholar Award, the Frank E. Seidman Distinguished Award in Political Economy, the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science.

Professor Ostrom's research has revolved around how institutional rules affect the structure of action situations within which individuals face incentives, make choices, and jointly affect each other. Problems involving collective goods and common-pool resource systems, and how various types of institutions enhance or detract from the capabilities of individuals to achieve equitable, workable, efficient solutions are a central theoretical concern. She is also interested in the same problems as they relate to resource issues in the Third World, particularly problems of collective action related to forests, fisheries, grazing areas, agricultural lands, and water systems. Her books include Governing the Commons (1990); Rules, Games, and Common-Pool Resources (1994); Local Commons and Global Interdependence: Heterogeneity and Cooperation in Two Domains (1995); The Samaritan's Dilemma: The Political Economy of Development Aid (2005); Understanding Institutional Diversity (2005); and Working Together: Collective Action, the Commons, and Multiple Methods in Practice (2010).