By Carol Wu
An accomplished athlete in high school, Brater was the star of his wrestling varsity team, scoring the most pins for three consecutive years. His athletic endeavors didn’t stop with wrestling. He ran Track and Field, and today, he continues to maintain his athletic fitness with a rigorous strength training regimen.
Ross Arthur Brater was born on November 5th, or Guy Fawkes Day, which is a British holiday celebrating Fawke’s failed assassination attempt against the king. Growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio, Brater was a playful boy, spending his days reading and playing games.
After double majoring in math and economics at Ohio Wesleyan University for his undergraduate degree, Brater went on to receive a PhD from Ohio State University.
Currently, Brater is an economist in the Antitrust Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. His work concentrates on merger analysis to stop mergers that might have anti-competitive, or monopolistic, effects.
A particular case that gained attention last year was the Aetna-Humana merger. The merger would have harmed Medicare consumers, or the senior community, but it was successfully blocked by the Antitrust Division. Brater assisted with the work on this case.
Brater has been a member of the NYU DC community for three years now. He is an Economist Lecturer teaching Principles of Microeconomics for the fall semester and Principles of Macroeconomics during the spring.
Before coming to D.C., Brater taught at his alma mater, Ohio State University, where he instructed five different courses. Most professors at the university didn’t have the responsibility of teaching this many.
When Brater isn’t maintaining his fitness, he’s tinkering around with computers. Just recently, Brater finished putting together a computer, and now, he’s slowly upgrading it piece by piece. Even after all these years, Brater’s high school pastimes still haven’t left him. He enjoys reading speculative fiction and playing retro video games with his brother and friends.
Leave a Reply