Elinor Ostrom, who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in economics for her lifelong work studying how communities share resources, died June 12. She was 78.Elinor Ostrom at the Festival the Commons last year in MInneapolis (Photo courtesy of Augsburg College.)

The only woman out of 69 Nobel Laureates in economics honored since 1969, Ostrom taught political science at Indiana University.