Alumni Newsletter September 2015
What's new at Western Economics?
It’s been another exciting year for Western Economics.
Audra Bowlus is taking a much deserved ‘year off’ from being Chair to concentrate on her research before taking on a second term as Chair. In the meantime, Todd Stinebrickner will serve as Acting Chair for the Department this year. For those of you who don’t know him, Todd is a labor economist who received his PhD from the University of Virginia and has been at Western since 1998. His research focuses on higher education, and he has been surveying students of Berea College in Kentucky for more than 15 years, analyzing nearly every choice they make and the consequences of those choices.
We had a busy year of hiring adding two new Full Professors to our ranks: Rui Castro and Silvia Goncalves. Rui’s research focuses on macroeconomics and economic development, while Silvia’s research is in the area of theoretical econometrics. We are currently looking for a new Tier II Canada Research Chair in Human Capital and Productivity and will be aiming to fill three additional faculty positions at all ranks this upcoming year. So, there will be lots of new faces and energy around the department.
A number of our faculty members won some impressive awards over the past year. Tim Conley received a Faculty Scholar’s Award, recognizing outstanding scholarly achievements by Western Faculty. Salvador Navarro was awarded the Department’s W. Glenn Campbell Fellowship while Charles Zheng was re-appointed the Christopher J. Grimes Faculty Fellowship in Microeconomic Theory. Lance Lochner was awarded the Harry Johnson Prize as co-author (with PhD alumnus Philippe Belley and Marc Frenette) of the best paper published in the Canadian Journal of Economics in 2014. And, Professor Emeritus David Laidler won the 2015 Thomas Guggenheim Prize for the History of Economic Thought – a lifetime achievement award for outstanding and original research in the history of economic thought. Six faculty members, including newcomers Rui and Silvia, were awarded major SSHRC research grants this past year bringing the total number of economics faculty currently holding SSHRC or NSERC grants up to 17! Meanwhile, Lars Stentoft was just awarded a John R. Evans Leaders Fund grant for “Computer-Intensive High Dimensional Models for Option Pricing and Risk Management” worth $500,000.
We congratulate all of our current students and alumni who have also had great success this past year. Fifth-year dual degree student (Ivey/Economics) Eric Huang advanced to the regional finals in the Hult Prize Challenge – the world’s largest student competition and start-up platform for social good. Read more about it elsewhere in this newsletter. The following links highlight some of our most recent Western student award winners: undergraduates and graduates. Alumnus Haoming Liu (PhD ’99) was awarded the 2015 Kuznets prize for the top paper in the Journal of Population Economics in 2014. Linking past and present students, the Gervan Fearon PhD Award in economics was recently established by Dr. Gervan A. Fearon (PhD ’99) in honor of Professors Davies and Slivinski that will be awarded annually to a current PhD student based on academic achievement, research merit and financial need. We both thank Dr. Fearon for his generous contribution and congratulate him on his recent installation as Brandon University’s new President and Vice Chancellor. We ask all of you to please update us on your recent awards and successes, so we can share the good news!
There’s a new Dean up on the 9th floor of the Social Sciences Centre. Robert Andersen joins Western from the University of Toronto. As a quantitative sociologist specializing in economic and social inequality, there is plenty of overlap between his research interests and those of many of our Economics faculty, especially those affiliated with the Department’s Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. Wasting no time, Dean Andersen is already leading a multidisciplinary effort to establish a National Centre for Research on Poverty and Inequality at Western as part of a new SSHRC Partnership Grant proposal that includes many Western economists as collaborators.
If you’re coming back to Western for Homecoming, be sure to join us and Dean Andersen at the Ceeps at 6pm on Friday, September 25, for Social Science at the Ceeps: Meet our new Dean. Many of us, including the Acting Chair, will be there to enjoy the complimentary beer and snacks and to engage in lively discussion with economics alumni and students.
We have even bigger plans for 2016! Be sure to join us for a weekend of events next October celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Western’s Economics Department. While we’re still in the planning stages for this exciting occasion, we expect to have an informal Friday night BBQ, a conference on Saturday with prominent speakers and panelists drawn from our alumni and current and former faculty, and a dinner Saturday night that highlights the distinguished history of Western Economics. You won’t want to miss it! Stay tuned for more information.
As we build and grow, external resources will be needed to complement the internal investments. With tightening provincial budgets and growing global competition, your donations matter more than ever. Please help by donating to our activities or contact us to discuss how you or your firm can help in our fundraising efforts.
Most importantly, we ask you to stay in touch! We would love to hear from you. To connect with us, visit the Alumni website and update your profile, join us at an upcoming event, send us an email, or stop in for a visit.
Until then, remember, ...The World Demands... Western Supplies.
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