a new generation walking the path that millie blazed. robert solow's father was a businessman who handled a lot of documents and when robert became an economist, his dad joked, we do the same thing, deliver papers. [laughter] but bob's influence extends far beyond the page, more than any living economist he has shaped economic policy and lives of people everywhere. his insights into how technological progress drives growth transformed our thinking about how to build prosperity, leading to more investments in research and education. in other words, more investments in people. when we won the nobel prize, a colleague wrote, "economists ' faces lit up all over the world." and this isn't exactly an irrationally exuberant group, economists. [laughter] they don't usually get real fired up. bob is not just mired by his. . --bob is not just admired by his