BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana University professor Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in economics, has died at age 78.

University spokesman Steve Hinnefeld said Ostrom died from cancer Tuesday morning at a Bloomington hospital.

Hinnefeld said the school was informed of Ostrom’s death by her longtime friend and IU colleague, Michael McGinnis, a professor of political science.

Ostrom shared the 2009 Nobel Prize for economics with Oliver Williamson from the University of California, Berkeley. Both researchers were honored for analyzing the rules by which people exercise authority in companies and economic systems.

Ostrom had been an Indiana University faculty member since 1965.