Ludger Wößmann is the professor of economics at the University of Munich and the director of the Center for the Economics of Education. His main research interests lie in the determinants of long-term prosperity and student achievement. He focuses on the importance of education to individuals and society, to historical and modern economic prosperity, as well as the significance of school system institutions for efficiency and equity. Further research topics include economic history, the economics of religion, and the Internet. His work has been awarded the Gossen Prize of the German Economic Association, the Young Economist Award of the European Economic Association, the EIB Prize of the European Investment Bank, and the Bruce Hopkings Memorial Award of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. He is a fellow of the International Academy of Education, a member of the German National Academy of Sciences, the German Academy of Sciences and Engineering, a member of the Academic Advisory Committee of the German Federal Ministry of Economics, the chairperson of the Education Economics Association of the German Research Council, and the head of the European Expert Network on the Economics of Education (EENEE). He is the co-editor of the Handbook of the Economics of Education, the co-organizer of the annual CESifo Regional Conference on the Economics of Education, and has given over 250 invited lectures. Among his more than 250 academic publications, 75 have been published in relevant journals, including Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Literature, Economic Journal, and Journal of Public Economics.