Ben Bernanke Fast Facts

Here's a look at the life of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Personal: Birth date: December 13, 1953

Birth place: Augusta, Georgia

Birth name: Ben Shalom Bernanke

Father: Philip Bernanke, a pharmacist

Mother: Edna (Friedman) Bernanke, a substitute teacher

Marriage: Anna (Friedmann) Bernanke (1978 - present)

Children: Alyssa, June 21, 1986; Joel, December 5, 1982

Education: Harvard University, B.A. in Economics, 1975 - graduated summa cum laude, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D. in Economics, 1979

Other Facts: Author of textbooks, many scholarly articles and books on a variety of economic issues.

Previously served as the director of the Monetary Economics Program of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and as a member of its Business Cycle Dating Committee.

Timeline: 1979-1985 - Associate professor at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University.

1985-1996 - Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton.

1996-2002 - Chairman of the Princeton University Economics Department and the Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of Economics and Public Affairs.

2002-2005 - Member of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System.

June 21, 2005-January 2006 - Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers.

October 24, 2005 - President George W. Bush nominates Ben Bernanke to replace Alan Greenspan as the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

January 31, 2006 - Confirmed by the Senate to succeed Alan Greenspan as chairman of the Federal Reserve, he is appointed to a four-year term as chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee which expires January 31, 2010. He is also appointed to a 14-year term as a member on the Board of the Federal Open Market Committee - this term expires January 31, 2020.

February 1, 2006-present - Chairman and member of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

August 25, 2009 - President Barack Obama nominates Bernanke for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

December 16, 2009 - Named Time's Person of the Year.

January 28, 2010 - Is confirmed by the U.S. Senate for a second four-year term by a vote of 70-30.

April 27, 2011 - Holds a press conference after an interest rate decision, for the first time in the Fed's 98 year history.

January 14, 2013 - Answers questions via Twitter for the first time, as part of a University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy program.