Oops! NYU says sorry for accidentally saying professor won Nobel

Well, that’s embarrassing.

The website for New York University’s Stern School of Business posted a statement announcing a news conference with Professor Paul Romer, currently on leave as chief economist at the World Bank, for winning the 2016 Nobel Prize in economics.

Just one problem: The award won’t be announced until Monday. The page quickly disappeared, but not before gathering some notice, thanks to the Internet Archive website, which preserves pages as they appeared, including the inadvertent NYU release on Thursday.

“We are deeply distressed that a draft test web page, not officially linked to our website, unintentionally became viewable on the web,” NYU Stern said in an e-mailed statement. “It does not reflect the Nobel committee’s decision, or any special insight or advance information we had.”

The statement, sent by spokeswoman Carolyn Ritter, added that the news release was prepared for the “possibility” that Romer might win.

“We are deeply sorry that these routine preparations may appear presumptuous, and we apologize to all concerned,” the statement read.

Romer posted his thoughts to his own website, acknowledging the mistake.

“For more that 20 years, October has been the time when the eager beavers in the university PR department get a little too excited as they drill in preparation for the possibility that I might receive a Nobel prize,” he wrote.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prize each year, also declared the news release inaccurate.

“The laureate or laureates won’t be told until on Monday after a decision has been made at the meeting that’s held just before it’s made official,” said Jessica Balksjoe Nannini, a spokeswoman for the academy.

Romer, 60, founding director of Stern’s Urbanization Project, has long been considered a candidate for the prize. The American is best known for his theories on how cities and countries can generate growth by promoting new technology.