Tõnu Puu is a Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 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...

 of Estonian

Estonians

Estonians are a Finnic people closely related to the Finns and inhabiting, primarily, the country of Estonia. They speak a Finnic language known as Estonian...

 descent. He is the Professor of Economics at Umeå University

Umeå University

Umeå University is a university in Umeå in the mid-northern region of Sweden. The university was founded in 1965 and is the fifth oldest within Sweden's present borders....

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Personal

Tõnu Puu took refuge from Estonia to Sweden upon the Soviet invasion in 1944, with parents and one sister. Puu is married to Gertrud since 1972, and they have two children, Margareta, born 1974, and Magnus, born 1981.

Education

Puu studied at Uppsala University 1956-1964, and finished his PhD in Economics in 1964 with Professor Tord Palander as thesis adviser. The thesis was graded "A" (Laudatur), the highest on a six-step scale (a rare distinction, used only thrice in Economics at Swedish universities in the 20th century). The thesis was awarded the Erik Lindahl Prize.

Academic positions

Puu worked as acting full professor of Economics at Uppsala University 1963-1970, and was appointed ordinary Professor of Economics by Royal patent at Umeå University in 1971. After emeritation in 2001, he works as senior professor at the Centre for Regional Science (CERUM). He had various commitments, such as being chairman of the Department of Economics, Business, and Law, chairman of the Board of the University Library, and vice president of the Union of Swedish University Professors.

Editorial boards

Puu was associated with the following scientific journals: Annals of Regional Science, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Journal of Regional Science, Networks and Spatial Theory, Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society, International Journal of Shape Modelling, Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, Mansoura Science Bulletin, a.o.

Other commitments

Puu was Founder and Director 1987-2001 of the Nordic Baroque Music Festival, and received in that capacity the Prize for extraordinary promotion of culture, awarded by the county government. Other musical interests are playing the viola da gamba, and being a "luthier", making his own instruments.

Publications

Puu has published over 20 books and 120 scholarly articles in economics, philosophy, and mathematics over the period 1962-2011. Topics studied include (in chronological order); portfolio selection, investment and production, philosophy of science (in collaboration with Sir Karl Popper), spatial economics, economics of the arts, nonlinear dynamic processes, oligopoly, and business cycles. The best known work are Attractors, Bifurcations, & Chaos - Nonlinear Phenomena in Economics, (Springer-Verlag 2003), Mathematical Location and Land Use Theory (Springer-Verlag 1997), and Spatial Economics: Potential, Density, and Flow (North-Holland Publishing Company 1985), co-authored with Martin J. Beckmann of Brown University.