An economist who brought reams of evidence to bear against the conventional wisdom about the dangers of population growth and resource consumption, Julian Lincoln Simon (1932–1998) was born in Newark, New Jersey, on February 12; he attended Harvard University. After service in the Navy and work in advertising, Simon earned an MBA in 1959 and a Ph.D. in business economics in 1961, both from the University of Chicago. Although initially adopting the conventional Malthusian view that rapid population growth was a primary obstacle to economic prosperity in both the developed and developing worlds, his own research soon convinced him otherwise. Instead, science and technology, products of inexhaustible human ingenuity, have improved human welfare in nearly every measurable way and will continue to do so indefinitely into the future. He served as professor of business administration at the University of Maryland and distinguished senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute...