Steve Salop (Georgetown Law antitrust economist, and occasional guest-blogger here at TOTM) took home the American Antitrust Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award last week. Jonathan Baker (American, FCC) and Carl Shapiro (Berkeley, DOJ) presented the award and summarized Salop’s contributions to industrial organization economics and antitrust. It was the first time I’ve attended an AAI event — and upon glancing at my name-tag a few attendees politely asked me whether I was lost. I wasn’t. I wouldn’t have missed it. Steve is well-deserving award winner, a brilliant and fundamentally important antitrust economist, and has been invaluable to me as a mentor even though (and perhaps especially because) we disagree on antitrust issues from time to time. It was a pleasure to be there to see his accomplishments recognized. I wasn’t the only one in an unfamiliar position at the award banquet. Steve’s was one of two awards given out that night. The second went to Professor Elhauge for his provocative article on the Death of the Single Monopoly Profit Theorem (see Thom’s post for a critical perspective, or my article with Dan Crane for another), which turned Steve into a moderate for the afternoon. Congratulations Steve.