George Akerlof is the Koshland Professor of Economics at the University of California Berkeley. Akerlof was a 2001 recipient of the Alfred E. Nobel Prize in Economic Science, recognized for his theory of asymmetric information and its effect on economic behavior. He is also the 2006 president of the American Economic Association. He served earlier as vice president and member of the executive committee. He is also on the North American Council of the Econometric Association.

Akerlof received his B.A. from Yale University in 1962 and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1966, the same year he became an assistant professor at Berkeley. He became a full professor in 1978.