Alumni Newsletter September 2013
John Whalley and the Western-CIGI-BRIC (China) - Ontario Project
It probably will not surprise many of you to know that John Whalley is still a very busy man with a full travel schedule. Whether it is collecting top awards like the Killam Prize in Ottawa, talking to high school students around Canada, or briefing MPPs in Ottawa or Chinese officials in Beijing, John seems to be everywhere lately. Depending on your cable package, you might even catch him on China Central Television, where he recently discussed the Chinese economy.
Last year, a committee of eminent Canadian scholars selected John for one of five annual Killam Prizes in recognition of his outstanding career in social science research. This comes only a few years after Western awarded John its top research honor in the Hellmuth Award. These accolades mainly highlight John’s pathbreaking research in the areas of international trade and quantitative general equilibrium modeling. Yet, if you have heard him talk recently, you would have almost certainly heard all about China’s growing role in the world economy.
In 2009, along with collaborators Manmohan Agarwal (Centre for International Governance Innovation, CIGI), Jim Davies (Western) and Terry Sicular (Western/CIGI), John started the Western-CIGI-BRIC (China) - Ontario Project to foster original policy relevant research on the Chinese and BRIC economies. The five-year project focuses on five key themes—China’s trade and investment, China’s growth strategies, China and climate change, China’s tax policies, and China and the South – and is jointly supported by Western, the Ontario Government through the Ontario Research Fund, and CIGI.
The project is not only about fostering research at Western with regular seminars and conferences, but it also aims to develop young talent and aid in capacity building, especially in China. The project has developed strong academic connections with top Chinese research institutes and universities.
In the past four years, over 30 Chinese Postdoctoral Fellows have visited Western. Nearly as many other outstanding Chinese scholars are currently affiliated with the project. Graduate students from Western and top universities in China, Hong Kong and India are also involved closely with the project.
Beyond this, the project has also developed outreach to Canadian high schools with senior scholars giving speeches to high school students twice a year.
All this is having an impact inside Canada and in China as evidenced by John’s many visits with policymakers and media interviews. We congratulate John on his recent 2012 Killam Prize and his success in elevating research and policy discussions on the Chinese economy.
You can learn more about Western-CIGI-BRIC (China)-Ontario Project from its website.
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