Walter E. Block is the Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics at Loyola University New Orleans. His Ph.D. was from Columbia University. His interests include Austrian economics and libertarian theory. He has published over 600 articles in refereed journals, 27 books, and thousands of op-eds. He lectures globally at university campuses, business, and civic groups. His main claims to fame are that he once played chess against Friedrich Hayek and on another occasion shook the hand of Ludwig von Mises. He never washed his hand afterward. It is now pretty dirty, but if you shake his hand, you channel this hero of his.