Elinor Ostrom Dies At 78

Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in economics, died Tuesday morning at age 78. The Indiana University professor of political science died of cancer.

Via ABC News.

Ostrom died of cancer Tuesday morning at IU Health Bloomington Hospital, university spokesman Steve Hinnefeld said. He said the school was informed of Ostrom’s death by her longtime friend and colleague, Michael McGinnis, a professor of political science at IU.

Ostrom shared the 2009 Nobel Prize for economics with Oliver Williamson from the University of California, Berkeley. They were honored for analyzing the rules by which people exercise authority in companies and economic systems.

Ostrom had been an Indiana University faculty member since 1965.