Elinor Ostrom, a US political scientist who is the only woman to have been awarded a Nobel Prize in Economics, has died aged 78.

A record five women won Nobels in 2009, but Ms Ostrom is the only woman to have been awarded the Economics prize

Ms Ostrom, who won a share of the 2009 prize for her research into how people overcome selfish interests to successfully manage natural resources, died of pancreatic cancer at IU Health Bloomington Hospital, said Michael McGinnis, a friend and colleague of 25 years who was at her bedside when she died.

Ms Ostrom’s husband, Vincent Ostrom, who is 93 years old and suffers from dementia, was brought to her room after she passed away, Mr McGinnis said.

“He was able to say goodbye to her and see that she was gone. I think he understood. It was very touching,” he added.

Ms Ostrom, who along with her husband founded Indiana University’s Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis in 1973, remained active in her research even after learning she had cancer late last year, said Mr McGinnis, the workshop’s current director.

He said she had travelled to Mexico this spring only a couple of weeks before her final hospitalisation. “She worked to the very end,” he said.

Ms Ostrom shared the 2009 Nobel Prize for Economics with Oliver Williamson from the University of California, Berkeley. Both were honoured for analysing the rules by which people exercise authority in companies and economic systems.

Mr Williamson said in a statement that Ms Ostrom was “a great human being”, an inspiring teacher and colleague and an accomplished social scientist. “She had a wonderful sense of joy about the importance of her work that she successfully communicated to others,” he added.

A record five women won Nobels in 2009, but Ms Ostrom is the only woman to have been awarded the Economics prize.

Ms Ostrom, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, devoted her career to studying the interaction of people and natural resources. Through her research she demonstrated how common resources – forests, fisheries, oil fields or grazing lands – can be managed successfully by the people who use them, rather than by governments or private companies.

“What we have ignored is what citizens can do and the importance of real involvement of the people involved – versus just having somebody in Washington ... make a rule,” Ms Ostrom said on the day her Nobel Prize was announced.

Ms Ostrom conducted field studies of the world’s fisheries, roamed with shepherds in Swiss pastures and trudged around the Los Angeles water basin to distill the essentials of harnessing cooperation to overcome selfish interests.

“What she did was to convince us, those of us who studied the other system – the experts, the state and the markets – to learn to appreciate the creativity of the local communities,” Mr McGinnis said.

“Her work cut through ideology in a way that is frankly not very prevalent today.”

Ms Ostrom was born Elinor Awan on August 7, 1933, in Los Angeles. School officials said she often spoke about what it was like to be a child of the Great Depression, helping her family grow food in a large garden.

Nobel laureates

Madame Marie Curie is a scientific icon remembered for her pioneering work in the field of radiation research.

• In 1903, only two years after the Nobel Foundation was established, a Nobel Prize was awarded to a woman, Marie Curie, for the first time.

• Women have been winning Nobel Prizes ever since, but in very small numbers compared to the number of male colleagues.

• It took 40 years from its inception for the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences to be awarded to a woman, Elinor Ostrom.

• This is despite the fact that one woman, Bertha von Suttner, was influential in convincing Alfred Nobel to establish a Prize for Peace.