The Nobel laureate in Economics in 1990. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Obtained a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1955 and a doctorate from the same university in 1961. Due to his contributions in the field of financial economics, he, along with Merton Miller and Harry Markowitz, jointly received the Nobel Prize in Economics.

Sharpe derived the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), also known as the single-factor model, in 1964. This model was constructed based on mean-variance analysis and Tobin's liquidity preference theory. Since the 1970s, he has studied pension investment policies and developed asset allocation tools. In 1986, he founded the Sharpe-Russell Research Company, focusing on the development of asset allocation strategies.