Last week, the World Economic Forum announced its Young Global Leaders Class of 2013. Martina Viarengo, Assistant Professor of International Economics, was named among the prestigious list of global leaders who were recognised for their professional achievements and commitments to society.

Professor Viarengo was honoured along with leaders from 70 countries from business (50%), and from the arts, culture, academia, civil society, government, media and non-profit organisations (50%). Young Global Leaders, who are under the age of 40, are selected through a rigorous process from thousands of candidates. The 2013 class also included Chelsea Clinton, Board Member at the Clinton Foundation and special correspondent for NBC News, Tawakkol Karman of Yemen, the journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Nate Silver, famed American statistician. The selection committee was headed by Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

In addition to her role as Assistant Professor, Martina Viarengo is affiliated to the Institute’s Centre for Finance and Development, the Programme on Gender and Global Change, and is on the Steering Committee of the Programme for the Study of Global Migration. In 2012, Professor Viarengo was nominated a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Women's Empowerment. She is also a Research Associate at the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics and a Faculty Associate at the Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government. Her research interests include public policy, development economics, gender, international migration, and economic history.