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This summer did not slow down for Meghan Selip, a recent ACE graduate whose interest in sustainability economics led to an internship with CEOS. Meghan got to work with the Ecology Action Center in Normal, Illinois this summer where she studied ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in McLean County. Primarily, she focused on the costs and benefits of utilizing hybrid vehicles and tree planting to improve air quality and how to best implement these strategies. The results will be put into a project proposal and presented to local officials to help advise them on what would be the best option for the Bloomington-Normal community.  

Meghan is currently pursuing her Masters in Agricultural and Applied Economics in the ACE Department and is a member of the Student Sustainability Committee at Illinois. She aspires to discover innovative solutions that are economically viable in environmental and food sustainability.

Eric Zhang’s enthusiasm for research has only grown since he began his first research project his sophomore year, which eventually led him to work with CEOS’s Amy Ando. In 2019, Eric Zhang, a senior in ACE, was awarded the first CEOS undergraduate research mini-grant to study the value people have for native plant species in the University of Illinois community. The project gracefully blended Eric’s background in applied economics with his minor in horticulture. Eric used the grant money to design and conduct a survey that enabled him to collect data from respondents in the UIUC community. The analysis can help determine if the cost of converting landscapes to include native plants exceeds people’s willingness to pay (WTP) for them.

Dr. Amy Ando, Co-Director of CEOS and professor of environmental economics, tells you about her research and why it matters in two minutes.  

See the video below. 

Hope Michelson received the Campus Distinguished Promotion Award from the Office of the Provost, which makes her one of five faculty on campus being promoted to associate professor. Hope is a development economist that studies the dynamics of poverty and food security in low-income countries and the manner in which large-scale agribusiness functions in the context of international development efforts. Congratulations, Hope! 

Agricultural technologies, tech adoption, and bioenergy production and use. Madhu describes what her research does and why it matters in two minutes.