In 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait and seized its oil facilities, American officials feared that the possible loss of production might trigger a steep price rise, staggering the world's economy. A young economist at the Federal Reserve Board looked into the problem, using a new economic forecasting tool that he was helping to create.

The tool involved the arcane world of options trading, and the economist was William Melick, now an associate professor of economics at Kenyon. Melick reasoned that options, used by savvy commodities traders to hedge against sharp swings in prices, might offer an accurate gauge of where oil prices were headed. After analyzing mounds of obscure options data, he concluded that despite the turmoil in the Middle East, traders had confidence that oil prices wouldn't rise to dangerous levels. They, and Melick, were right.

Melick came to "the Hill" in Gambier in 1998, after eleven years with the Fed. Here at Kenyon, he has continued to work with options pricing, conducting research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Ohio, where he enjoys visiting-scholar status. He has also had an opportunity to get his hand back in government. In 2001-02, he took a leave to serve as a senior economist on the President's Council of Economic Advisors.

Back at Kenyon, Melick regularly teaches the introductory economics course as well as advanced courses in such fields as financial markets and the economics of globalization. In all of his classes, he can offer students the perspective of someone who has very much "been there," using sophisticated analytical tools to address real-world problems.