Greetings from the KU Department of Economics
Greetings from the KU Department of Economics, and welcome to a new issue of the KU Economist! We’re very excited to be able to share news about the Department, its faculty, its students, and its alumni with you. We anticipate that this new electronic format will allow greater reach and more opportunities for interaction and feedback.
The faculty have enjoyed a busy and very productive year. The articles linked below highlight some of their many accomplishments. Among many faculty accomplishments, Tsvetan Tsvetanov received the Byron T. Shutz Awardfor Excellence in Teaching; John Zhu was promoted to Associate Professor; Eungsik Kim and Jo Lugovskyy both received CTE awards for course/program improvement; and Tarun Sabarwal received a KU Research GO award to further his work in decentralized networks. In addition to the coverage of conferences and research projects highlighted in this issue, please also take a minute to check out the Department of Economics Discovery page. There you’ll find an updated list of the faculty’s recent research articles, federal grants, books, awards, and presentations.
It has also been a busy year for our students. In the fall we welcomed four PhD students into the program. Even as these new graduate students completed their first year, we congratulated three graduate students who completed their PhDs this academic year and moved on to exciting careers in academic and industry. These graduates join the dozens of recent PhD graduates who are using their knowledge and skills to address issues of vital importance in the global economy.
We also celebrated with the undergraduate students who completed their BS, BA, and BGS degrees this spring. We were particularly honored to have Dr. Andrew Smith (KU Class of 2014) provide an insightful commencement address for our graduates. Dr. Smith is an Economist and Vice President at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and has oversight of macroeconomic research and serves as an advisor on monetary policy matters. We were also pleased to have KU Student Body President Sadie Williams provide a student commencement address. Congratulations to all of our graduates!
We also want to recognize the contributions of many alumni and donors who make so much of what we do possible. This year we were able to provide $72,000 in student scholarships and awards because of the generosity of our donors. Please visit our awards website to learn more about the awards and opportunities that our donors have provided.