The U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved the nomination of Ben Bernanke to succeed Alan Greespan as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Bernanke was cleared on a voice vote after a short debate.

Born on December 13, 1953, in Augusta, Ga., Bernanke graduated from Harvard with an economics degree and added a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He spent six years teaching at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, 17 years at Princeton and several years as a visiting faculty member at other institutions, including MIT.

Appointed by President George W. Bush, Bernanke became a Fed governor in 2002. He held the job until June 2005 when he was chosen by the president to be chairman of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers.

In October last year, he was nominated by the president to be the next Federal Reserve chairman, the 14th chief since the central bank was established in 1913.

He succeeds Alan Greenspan, 79, who retires Tuesday after 18 and a half years in the post of the central bank's chairman.

Bernanke will be sworn in as soon as on Wednesday.

Source: Xinhua