Ben S. Bernanke (born December 13, 1953) is a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Board. He was recently chosen to head the Council of Economic Advisers.

He was born in Augusta, Georgia and graduated from Harvard University in 1975. He has given several important lectures at the London School of Economics on monetary theory and monetary policy. For these, and for his generally-acknowledged expertise in the field, he is the odds-on favorite to replace Alan Greenspan as Chairman of the Federal Reserve when Greenspan retires from that position in January 2006.