Sumner Huber Slichter was an American economist

Economist

An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...

 and the first Lamont University Professor at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

. Slichter was considered by many to be the pre-eminent labor economist

Labour economics

Labor economics seeks to understand the functioning and dynamics of the market for labor. Labor markets function through the interaction of workers and employers...

 of the 1940s and 1950s.
Slichter was born in Madison, Wisconsin

Madison, Wisconsin

Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....

, the son of Charles Sumner Slichter

Charles S. Slichter

Charles Sumner Slichter was a well-respected mathematician and physicist. Some of his contributions to the body of science came from hydrogeology in which he developed a method of quantifying the velocity of ground-water underflow in river valleys...

, a mathematician and dean of the graduate school at the University of Wisconsin

University of Wisconsin–Madison

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1913 before earning a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

.
Following stints at Cornell and Princeton

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

, Slichter moved to Harvard in 1930.