News from AEDE: June 2016
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Letter from Tim Haab, AEDE Department Chair
This continues to be an exciting time for AEDE. The past few newsletters I have focused on the changing faces of AEDE around the Agricultural Administration building. New students, new faculty, new staff. This month I want to focus on the changing face of the Agricultural Administration building itself.
Just this week, construction started on a major renovation to the second floor of our building. Over the coming months, a new administrative office suite will be constructed to house all of AEDE’s administrative offices and staff. These changes are being driven by the College’s desire to consolidate their administrative offices on the first floor. When construction is completed in October, we will have a brand new office suite including offices for all staff members, a new conference room, a new reception area and even a kitchenette. We will also have two modern classrooms equipped with all the bells and whistles that are necessary for teaching in the 21st century.
While we will be moving out of the offices that everyone has come to know as the face of AEDE on the first floor, we are excited to have a new space for AEDE to call home. We look forward to being able to invite everyone to explore the new space in the fall. Until then, I hope everyone has a great summer and is able to find some time to get away from the daily grind and relax.
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Eugene Jones Retires After 32 Years of Service
With the completion of the 2015-2016 academic year, AEDE faculty member Eugene Jones retired from Ohio State. Jones had been a faculty member in the department since 1984.
In his work at Ohio State, he focused on marketing and price analysis, as well as consumer demand for food and beverages. His research looked at supermarket scanner data to examine the differences in purchasing behavior between lower and higher income consumers. Additionally, his research examined game-theoretic frameworks to explore pricing competition among supermarket chains. He also studied the US frozen potato market and the export market for bananas.
Jones taught a number of classes while at AEDE including undergraduate courses in data analysis, the principles of food and resource economics, and an internship in agribusiness program, among others. At the graduate level he taught a course on marketing economics in agriculture.
During his academic career Jones was a member of the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association, the Food Distribution Research Society, and the Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
Jones earned his bachelors degree in economics from Tuskegee University, his masters in economics from American University, and his PhD in food and resource economics from the University of Florida. Prior to joining Ohio State he worked as an agricultural economist for the US Department of Agriculture, as an economic development supervisor in St. Louis, Missouri, as an economic development specialist in Illinois, and as an economist and financial analyst for the US Agency for International Development.
He will be greatly missed by all of AEDE, especially the undergraduate student body, who recently awarded him with the 2015-2016 Outstanding Faculty Member award for his commitment to teaching excellence. A reception will be held in autumn 2016 to honor Jones.
Thank you, Dr. Jones, for your service to AEDE!
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Faggian and Dotzel Secure Funding for New Research on Knowledge Management and Rural Firms
AEDE’s Professor Alessandra Faggian has been chosen to receive a grant from the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development (NERCRD) based on a proposal she developed with advisee Kathryn Dotzel to study knowledge management strategies of rural firms working in the U.S. and to examine how these strategies impact the performance of these firms.
NERCRD is a research center at Penn State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences that partners with more than a dozen land grant academic institutions in the northeastern U.S. on research-based initiatives that create regional prosperity through entrepreneurial and cluster-based innovation while assuring the balanced uses of natural resources in livable communities.
Three proposals, including the one from Faggian and Dotzel, were chosen to be funded for the 2016-2017 academic year. Through this funding, NERCRD aims to support data access and research in rural business innovation and economic development.
The secured funding will be used to support Dotzel as a research assistant on the project as well as access to the USDA's Rural Establishment Innovation Survey (REIS), which the researchers will draw data from for the project. Released for the first time in 2015, REIS is a comprehensive and nationally representative survey on innovative technologies and practices, demand and use of finance, human resource practices and other relevant establishment data.
“The purpose of our research is to explore the relationship between knowledge management, which involves the formation of partnerships that allow firms to acquire and use new knowledge, and firm-level innovation,” Dotzel explains.
Faggian and Dotzel will focus on innovation search strategy, or which sources firms target for information about new opportunities or new ways of doing things, as well as the integration of technologies that facilitate data-driven decision-making and the dissemination of knowledge among employees, suppliers, and customers.
“By considering multiple metrics of innovation and technology use, our analysis will provide valuable insights into the relative importance of knowledge management strategies on the innovative performance of rural firms in the United States,” Dotzel said.
Faggian and Dotzel will present their research at the May 2017 NERCRD conference.
Image (left to right): Alessandra Faggian and Kathryn Dotzel
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A Day in the Life: Daniel Crown, PhD Student and ERS Intern
Daniel Crown, an AEDE doctoral student who just finished his second year of the program, is spending the summer as an intern at USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) in Washington D.C. A native of Gaithersburg, Maryland, Daniel focuses on regional economics in his work at AEDE. He also has an interest in migration and is advised by AEDE's Professor Alessandra Faggian. Daniel completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland, College Park and previously worked as an intern at the US Census Bureau.
Through his own narrative, Daniel gives us an account of what it's like to spend the summer applying the economic concepts that he has learned in the AEDE classroom to a real-world setting as an intern in our nation's capital.
Photos (except where noted) and story by Daniel Crown
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Training the Next Generation of Educators: A Look at AEDE’s Participation in the University’s Graduate Teaching Fellows Program
The Ohio State University Graduate Teaching Fellows Program (part of the Ohio State Teaching Enhancement Program, or OSTEP) provides support to senior graduate students from across the university to develop new, discipline-specific teaching support activities for Graduate Teaching Associates (GTAs) in their respective academic units. Each year, an AEDE doctoral student represents the department in the program with the goal of providing training to their peers using OSTEP funding and guidance. The Graduate Teaching Fellows Program is co-sponsored by Ohio State University’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Ohio State’s Graduate School.
During the 2015-2016 academic year, LaPorchia Collins served as AEDE’s Graduate Teaching Fellow. As part of the program, Collins administered a needs assessment survey to AEDE doctoral students in autumn 2015.
“The survey provided valuable information regarding students’ perception of teaching support within the department,” Collins explains when talking about some of the initiatives that she undertook as this year's Fellow. “Based on the survey, I designed teaching workshops to provide practical training regarding active learning strategies and classroom management.”
In spring 2016, 14 AEDE doctoral students participated in these training workshops. Of the 34 AEDE doctoral students that completed the needs assessment survey, 82 percent reported that they are considering a career in academia, 68 percent have held a GTA appointment in the department, and, 24 percent have already taught in AEDE classrooms. Though 90 percent of students surveyed noted that the department values excellence in teaching and offers opportunities for teaching experience, only 42 percent of respondents felt that the department offered sufficient training for GTAs.“Overall, the survey results suggest that graduate students have a positive view of the culture of teaching within the department but there is a need for more professional development opportunities in the area of teaching,” Collins reflected.
In addition to facilitating teaching workshops, Collins started a guest lecturing initiative in which several doctoral students were matched with AEDE faculty to guest lecture in their classrooms. In her role as AEDE’s Graduate Teaching Fellow, Collins offered guidance regarding teaching strategies to students before their guest lecture and she provided substantive feedback afterward regarding their performance.
“My faculty mentor, Professor Brian Roe, helped to identify AEDE faculty members that wanted to participate in the guest lecturing initiative,” said Collins. “The students that participated in the initiative this year had not taught previously, so faculty involvement in the initiative really shows commitment to preparing students for academia.”“I am elated that AEDE has decided to continue its participation in the Graduate Teaching Fellows Program. Based on the outcomes of my project as this year’s Fellow, I strongly recommend that the department continue to offer teaching workshops and other support,” Collins said.
Graduate Teaching Fellows are offered one-year terms. During the 2016-2017 academic year, doctoral student Isha Rajbhandari will serve as AEDE’s Graduate Teaching Fellow.
Top and bottom image: Doctoral students in the AEDE spring 2016 classroom management workshop facilitated through funding and guidance from Ohio State's Graduate Teaching Fellows Program.
Center image: Isha Rajbhandari (left), who will serve as the 2016-2017 AEDE Graduate Teaching Fellow, with LaPorchia Collins (right), who served as AEDE's Fellow during the 2015-2016 academic year.
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Meet the Winners of the 2016 Ohio State Environmental Policy Initiative Grant Competition
Ohio State’s Environmental Policy Initiative (EPI) is pleased to announce the winners of its 2016 summer research grant competition. Each year, EPI summer research grants support Ohio State doctoral students conducting innovative, environmental policy-related dissertation research. Recipients receive an award of $4,500 to aid them in their research during the summer semester.
This year, the award was given to three outstanding Ohio State doctoral students: Debangana Bose from the Department of Geography, Emily Hutchins who is pursuing a degree in environmental social science in the School of Environment and Natural Resources, and Jonathan Ogland-Hand who is in the Environmental Science Graduate Program.
Bose is advised by Nancy Ettlinger and focuses on the effects of urban restructuring through resettlement and its impact on the environment in her studies at Ohio State. She will use the funding for travel to Delhi, India in 2016 to investigate how resettlement in Delhi’s peri-urban areas have impacted the region’s environmental ecosystems. Her research will also critically evaluate the “Sustainable and Smart Cities” program and “Clean India Mission,” which are policies initiated by the government of India to protect and conserve urban and peri-urban ecosystems.
Hutchins, who is advised by Eric Toman, focuses on climate adaptation policy in her work at Ohio State. She earned a B.S. in environmental science from the University of Maryland where she studied wildlife management and soil science. Before pursuing a graduate degree she worked for the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management in Lewistown, Montana where she gained an appreciation for the work of resource managers and the impact of policy on environmental conservation efforts.
Ogland-Hand is advised by Jeffrey Bielicki who oversees Ohio State’s Energy Sustainability Research Group, which Ogland-Hand is affiliated with. The group focuses on the interaction of energy, the environment and policy. In his studies at Ohio State, Ogland-Hand focuses on quantifying the impact that CO2-Geothermal Bulk Energy Storage (CO2-BES) can have on CO2 emissions from regional electricity systems. This summer Ogland-Hand will apply the EPI grant to research on the impact that CO2-BES could have on regional water stress. Before coming to Ohio State Ogland-Hand earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Valparaiso University.EPI, which is housed in Ohio State's Department of Agricultural, Environment, and Development Economics (AEDE), aims to stimulate and focus systematic collaboration in environmental policy through research, graduate and undergraduate education, communication with the policy community, and interaction with the national and international community of scholars in environmental policy. The program is overseen by AEDE’s Professor Brent Sohngen.
Image (left to right): Debangana Bose, Emily Hutchins and Jonathan Ogland-Hand
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AEDE Seeks Participants for Study on Consumer Eating Habits, Free Lunch Included
This article was originally published by Ohio State's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — With today’s varied food and beverage marketplace, recent research shows that Americans are altering their diets at increasing rates, causing food and beverage companies to try to keep pace.
“While we all know the saying, ‘We are what we eat,’ it is also important to link our own eating and food handling decisions with issues being faced by society today,” said Brian Roe, a professor of agricultural economics in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University.
Roe and his colleagues are seeking participants to travel to Ohio State’s Columbus campus to engage in a 15-minute study on consumer eating habits and food handling behavior.
Participants, who must be at least 18 years old, will be asked to read an information card on food handling behavior, to answer a few questions about the card and to complete an anonymous survey.
All participants will earn a free onsite lunch consisting of a sandwich, chips, fruit and a soft drink as compensation for their time. Participants also will be reimbursed for any parking fees or COTA bus tickets needed to get to the campus.
Research sessions are being scheduled for midday from now through the end of July. They will be held in Ohio State’s Agricultural Administration Building, 2120 Fyffe Road.
To participate in the study, email lunchstudy@osu.edu to state your interest, and a member of the research team will reply with available dates and times.
The research is being funded by the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center’s (OARDC) SEEDS program, a competitive grants initiative for Ohio State faculty and graduate students. OARDC is the college’s research arm.
Roe is a member of the college’s Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics.
Image: There's such a thing as a free lunch for people who help with a study in Columbus. It takes only 15 minutes. (Photo: CareyHope, iStock.)
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In Memoriam: Elmer Baumer, AEDE Professor Emeritus
Elmer Baumer, a former professor in the department, passed away on May 25, 2016 in Columbus, Ohio.
Baumer earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in agricultural economics from The Ohio State University. After completing his masters degree, he was employed by a marketing cooperative in Cleveland for two and a half years. Baumer then returned to Ohio State to complete his PhD, which he earned in 1954. At this time, he was offered a position as an assistant professor in the agricultural economics department.
Baumer remained with Ohio State for the duration of his career, serving as associate professor and then professor in the department. He was a very active advisor and served on numerous faculty committees in the department, college and university. Baumer eventually moved into university administration where he served as the associate dean of Ohio State’s Graduate School and then associate provost of the university. He retired from Ohio State in 1987.
Baumer was married for 70 years to his wife Virginia, who is survived by him along with his five children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He and Virginia raised their family in Upper Arlington, Ohio where they were devoted community members.
To read his full obituary, including a nice story about his determination as a student, please click here.
Image: Elmer Baumer (www.schoedinger.com)