Eugene Fama, a Malden Catholic graduate of the Class of 1956, received the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences Oct. 14.

Fama, of the University of Chicago, shared the The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel with Lars Peter Hansen, also of the University of Chicago, and Robert Shiller of Yale University.

The three received the Nobel Prize in Economics for their work demonstrating that, while the price of stocks and bonds cannot be predicted in the short term, the overall trend of prices can be predicted over course of years.

Beginning in the 1960s, Fama and several collaborators demonstrated that stock prices are extremely difficult to predict in the short run, and that new information is very quickly incorporated into prices. These findings not only had a profound impact on subsequent research but also changed market practice. The emergence of index funds in stock markets all over the world is a prominent example.

A Medford native, Fama was a strong student at Malden Catholic. He went on to earn a B.A. from Tufts University and both an MBA and PhD. from University of Chicago.

"The Malden Catholic community is extremely happy with Dr. Fama's tremendous success," said Edward C. Tyrrell, Headmaster. "We commend him for his outstanding contributions to economics and stock price analysis."