A John Evans Professor of Economics from Northwestern University will be giving two lectures at Iowa State as a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar.

Burton Weisbrod, who is also the former director of Northwestern’s Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research, will be speaking on campus Oct. 15 and 16.

According to a press release, Weisbrod’s first lecture will be today at 3:40 p.m. in Room 118 of Horticulture Hall.

His lecture shares the same title as his book, “To Profit or Not to Profit: The Commercial Transformation of the Non Profit Sector.”

Weisbrod’s second lecture will take place on Friday in the Campanile Room of the Memorial Union at 4 p.m. His Friday lecture is titled “Health Care Cost Containment of Scientific Advance: Can We Have It All.”

“Professor Weisbrod served on the Council of Economics and is a well-respected economist,” said Peter Orazem, professor of economics and interim associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

“He is one of the preeminent speakers on economics and nonprofit institutions,” he said.

Susan Yager, adviser to Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest honorary organization in the United States, said Weisbrod is very well known in economics departments across the nation.

“He has done research in health care costs and nonprofit economics,” she said.

Orazem said the purpose of the Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar program is to bring premier speakers to campus who people at ISU normally would not have a chance to hear.

Weisbrod has served as a John Evans Professor of Economics at Northwestern for the last eight years. He researches issues of public policy issues, according to a press release.

Northwestern’s economics department Web site listed Weisbrod’s two principle areas of research as the cause and consequences of technological change in health care and comparative institutional behavior.

According to the Web site, his specialties are the economics of health and technological changes and behavior of private nonprofit and governmental organizations in a mixed economy.

Weisbrod’s lectures are co-sponsored by the Department of Economics and the Miller Lecture Fund.