Celebrating ARE Awards and Honors
The Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ARE) recognized the achievements of our faculty, staff and students at a department awards celebration on Friday, April 25, highlighting a year of outstanding accomplishments across teaching, research and extension.
Department Head Junjie Wu began the short program by acknowledging several national and university-level awards received by faculty and students over the past year. Highlights included the AERE Publication of Enduring Quality Award won by Professor Spencer Banzhaf and Teaching Professor Julianne Treme’s nomination for the Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching.
The program also featured the presentation of the Gerald A. Carlson Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award, recognizing exceptional doctoral research. This year, ARE honored two scholars, Chanheung Cho and Lulu Pi.
Advised by Associate Professor Zack Brown and Associate Professor Justin Baker, Cho is a postdoctoral researcher at NC State and the Science and Technologies for Phosphorus Sustainability (STEPS) Center. He has already published two papers from his dissertation, one in the Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association and one in Pest Management Science.
Advised by Professor Xiaoyong Zheng and Associate Professor Zheng Li, Pi is now an assistant professor at The China Center for Agricultural Policy at Peking University. He has already published a paper from his dissertation in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Pi was unable to attend the celebration but was honored in his absence.
The Best ARE Graduate Student Advisor of the Year Award recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated exceptional dedication to graduate education and mentorship over the past year. In making its decision, the committee considered student nomination letters, the number of dissertation chapters advised and the faculty’s role in supporting student career placements. This year, Professor Tom Vukina was honored with this award.
To conclude the event, we recognized two faculty members for distinguished international recognition. Professor Spencer Banzhaf was named a 2024 Fellow last year by the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis. This honor represents a continued commitment to advancing the principles of benefit-cost analysis for informed decision-making. Professor Nick Piggott was celebrated as a Distinguished Fellow of the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, highlighting his decades-long service and influential research.
The award celebration served as a reminder of the department’s continued excellence and global impact across research, teaching and extension.
