From the desk of Gopi Munisamy
Jared Daniel, Dr. Ford Ramsey, Dr. Shanjukta Nath, and Dr. Huaiyu Wang (visiting colleague)
New AAE Coordinators: Drs. Jeff Mullen, Ben Campbell and Chen Zhen
Faculty and graduate students at AAEA Annual Meeting
AAE Colleagues, Students, and Friends:
Welcome back, everyone! Hope you all are having a good summer so far! A hearty welcome to a lot of new faces: five faculty, one staff, one post-doc, 40 freshmen and 22 undergraduate transfers, and 32 graduate students (note to self: better be sharp with all those names and faces). The faculty, staff, and post-doc are featured in this newsletter. Please stop by their office to say hello and get them engaged with AAE affairs.
We lost two faculty to other universities: Dr. Jeff Dorfman, whose exemplary contributions to Georgia and the nation spanned over 30 years; and Dr. Nick Magnan, an established scholar in development economics. Big shoes to fill, but we thank them for many years of excellence and wish them the best in their new academic homes.
A quick reminder that our new coordinators are: Dr. Jeff Mullen (Undergraduate); Dr. Chen Zhen (Graduate); and Dr. Ben Campbell (Extension). Please reach out to them as questions arise in those contexts. We are prepping for the Graduate Program review with Dr. Berna Karali in the lead.
A large AAE contingent attended the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association in Washington, DC (it was loud and vocal there). Our theme for Summer is to become more active on social media – please follow the Department on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and others. We hope to sustain that momentum going forward!
Planning begins now for the annual J.W. Fanning Lecture, one of our signature events. Please suggest potential speakers who can engage both academics and a policy audience on issues relevant to Georgia.
The AAE Department and I support and value contributions in all our mission areas – Teaching, Extension and Public Service, and Research – and of course, professional support from our staff! Look for many of these contributions in the next few pages including a spotlight on our international and local impacts. A busy year has set the stage for an exciting new chapter for AAE as we welcome new members and work towards a top-five ranking in each of our mission areas.
Many thanks to our alumni and friends for their sustained contributions in support of the AAE mission!