The FINRA Investor Education Foundation has awarded Annamaria Lusardi the 2018 Ketchum Prize for outstanding service and research to advance investor protection and financial capability in the U.S., the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced Friday.

Lusardi, an economics professor at George Washington University, is among the world’s leading authorities on the topics of financial literacy and financial capability, FINRA says in a news release.

“More than any other individual, Annamaria Lusardi has focused global attention on the critical importance of financial capability in 21st century society,” says Gerri Walsh, president of the FINRA Foundation, in a statement. “Her research has been enormously influential—not just among policymakers and academics, but also among those who work every day to educate people of all backgrounds about the financial choices affecting their lives.”

“I feel so strongly about financial capability that I have made it my life’s work. I am delighted to receive the Ketchum Prize, not only because it acknowledges my work in a pioneering field but, more importantly, because it turns a spotlight on the critical importance of financial literacy. Just as the ability to read—literacy—is indispensable in our modern world, so, too, financial literacy is an essential tool for success,” Dr. Lusardi said.

The annual US$10,000 prize is named for Richard Rick Ketchum, who retired as chairman and CEO of FINRA and chairman of the FINRA Foundation in 2016.