Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn will take his central banking expertise to the Brookings Institution after he retires this week from four decades at the Fed, Brookings announced on Monday.

Kohn, a noted expert on monetary policy and financial regulation, will become a senior fellow at the think tank in mid-September. Wednesday is his last day at the Fed.

President Barack Obama nominated Janet Yellen, head of the San Francisco Fed, to take over from Kohn. She has been approved by the Senate Banking Committee and awaits a final vote by the full Senate.

Kohn is widely admired inside and outside the Fed, having risen through the ranks to the No. 2 post and offered counsel to Fed chiefs through some of the most turbulent periods of economic history, including the 2007-2009 financial crisis.

He holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Michigan and is also widely published on Fed policy and on macroeconomic issues. Kohn began his career as a financial economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 1970 and was a longtime director of the Division of Monetary Affairs at the Fed from 1987-2001.

He became a Fed governor in August 2002 and was sworn in as vice chairman of the U.S. central bank in June 2006.

(Reporting by Glenn Somerville; Editing by Padraic Cassidy)