Cockcroft Rutherford Lecture: Nobel prize winner and alumnus Professor Simon Johnson
30 May 2025
An invitation to join us for the annual Cockcroft Rutherford lecture taking place on Thursday, 19 June 2025
On Thursday 19 June Nobel prize winner and alumnus Professor Simon Johnson will deliver the Cockcroft Rutherford Lecture. The lecture, which will be Chaired by Professor Duncan Ivison President and Vice-Chancellor, is titled ‘Technology and Global Inequality in the Age of AI’.
According to leaders of the tech sector, the arrival of Artificial Intelligence will “change everything” – about productivity growth, jobs, and shared prosperity. In their recent book, Power and Progress: Our Thousand Year Struggle Over Power and Prosperity, Simon Johnson and Daron Acemoglu take the long view – putting the latest (and likely future) AI developments into historical context. AI could help boost the wages and living standards of everyone, but there is a very real danger that it will primarily bring a lot more automation and further widening of income inequality both within industrial economies and across countries.
In this lecture, Professor Johnson will discuss the intellectual and policy debates swirling around AI both in the US and around the world. Can we really create “Pro-Worker AI”? What would that take?
Professor Johnson’s pioneering research has significantly shaped modern economic thought, providing policymakers with key tools to address inequality and promote sustainable growth. His career has included prominent roles at the Washington-based Peterson Institute and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where he served as chief economist. He is currently the Ronald A Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
We do hope you will be able to join us for the lecture followed by a drinks and canapes reception. You can book tickets on Eventbrite using the link below.
The lecture will take place in the Nancy Rothwell Building, The University of Manchester, Booth Street East, Manchester, M13 9QS, at 6.15pm