Dear Michael, Many thanks from the Brazilian HET community for your graceful tribute to Mauro. He was full of ideas for future research. Best wishes, Rogério Arthmar Em quinta-feira, 7 de março de 2024, Hans-Michael Trautwein < [log in to unmask]> escreveu: > Tribute to Mauro Boianovsky (1959-2024) > > On February 21, Mauro Boianovsky passed away in Brasília at the age of 64, > after some months of illness. Within few hours the internet was full of > reactions to the death notice, mourning the great, and in many cases > unexpected, loss for the community of historians of economic thought. If he > had lived to see the signs of appreciation from all over the world, Mauro > would have found them remarkable with regard to the fact that he had been > based in Brasília for most of his life – quite distant from the usual > places of education, research and interaction in HET even now, but much > farther away in terms of travel and communication at the beginning of his > career. > > Mauro took his first degree in economics at the Universidade de Brasília in > 1979. He completed his Master’s degree at the Pontifícia Universidade > Católica (PUC) do Rio de Janeiro in 1989, after years of teaching at the > Universidade Federal Fluminense across the bay. His Master’s thesis, > supervised by Edward Amadeo, was the beginning of his life-long engagement > with the theories of Knut Wicksell. As a Cambridge graduate student in the > first half of the 1990s, Mauro worked on a doctoral thesis about Wicksell > and contemporaneous business cycle theories, under the supervision of Geoff > Harcourt. After earning his Ph.D. in 1996, he returned to the Universidade > de Brasília, where he served as professor for the rest of his life. > > Mauro was a prolific writer in the history of macroeconomics, in > particular with regard to the evolution of monetary theory, business cycle > theory and development economics. The publication record in his official CV > comprises 80 articles in scientific journals plus many other publications, > including five books that he co-authored, edited or co-edited. Most of this > was based on detective work in the archives, in which he collected all > sorts of materials as pieces of evidence on the formation and diffusion of > the ideas, concepts and theories under scrutiny. Rearranging them like > pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that could take unexpected shapes in the process, > he filled gaps and established overlooked linkages in the history of > macroeconomics. Over time Mauro became a master of rich contextualization. > > While Wicksell remained the fixed star around which much of Mauro’s > research evolved, he wrote copiously also about other economists and about > the evolution of concepts. To name just a few of his favourite subjects, it > may suffice to mention the names of Dennis Robertson, Ragnar Frisch, David > Champernowne, Evsey Domar and Don Patinkin, the concepts of involuntary > unemployment and natural rates of interest, and the making of Gottfried > Haberler’s *Prosperity and Depression. *Around 2005, Mauro began to work > on the Latin American history of development economics, with a special > focus on the contributions of Celso Furtado, but also in more comprehensive > perspectives. > > Coming from Brasília, Mauro needed to travel far and frequently for > digging in the archives, attending conferences, and meeting with co-authors > and other colleagues that invited him to their institutions. Quite aptly, > he chose “Economists and their travels” as the topic for the presidential > address that he delivered to the History of Economics Society in 2017. He > had attended HES conferences since 1994 and served in various functions in > that society, as described in his recollections published in the “HES at > 50” issue of the *Journal of the History of Economic Thought *(February > 2024). Mauro was also a regular participant in ESHET conferences and a > member of the ESHET council from 2006 until 2010. He supported the > formation and activities of ALAHPE, the Latin American network of > historians of economic thought, not least by providing an encouraging > example of a successful career in the international HET community. He had > friends all over the world and will be greatly missed. > > Hans-Michael Trautwein > > (This is just a short tribute; a longer obituary will be published in the > April issue of EJHET) >