Each year, several dozen people from across the United Kingdom are recognized for extraordinary achievements and service in the New Year Honours List. The 2026 List, compiled by King Charles III and announced on December 29, 2025, includes SFI External Professor Wendy Carlin (University College London), who was appointed the title Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, among the highest honors in the British system.
Recognized as a leading figure in economic academia, Carlin is celebrated for her wide-ranging research in economics and her work drawing together the role of inequality in business cycle fluctuations, financial cycles, and growth. The award cites, in particular, Carlin’s work as a founder and director of the Curriculum Open-access Resources in Economics, or CORE Econ, which she and SFI Professor Sam Bowles launched in 2013. The free, open-source project has grown to include contributions from researchers around the world, including SFI External Professors Suresh Naidu (Columbia University), Rajiv Sethi (Columbia University), and Simon DeDeo (Carnegie Mellon University), and former SFI Postdoctoral Fellow Marion Dumas (London School of Economics). The CORE Econ curriculum now reaches roughly 165,000 students each year.
“Spending time at SFI has coincided with much of the work recognized with this honour, and I am very grateful for the stimulation provided by the community,” says Carlin.
Carlin is “widely considered a leading figure in economic academia,” states the award citation, and her “dedication to ensuring an economics education is accessible to all is exemplified by CORE’s provision of open-source teaching materials at no cost. This has made a substantial difference to students of economics worldwide, with over 500 universities using CORE materials globally.”
MORE
- “Meet the Oxfordshire people recognized in the The New Year Honours 2026,” The Oxford Magazine (December 30, 2025)
- “UCL’s Professor Wendy Carlin Appointed Dame Commander for Services to Economics,” UCL News (January 5, 2026)