Invited Speakers
Grand Challenges at the frontier of Applied Economics
John Quiggin
John Quiggin is a Professor of Economics at the University of Queensland. He is a prominent research economist and commentator on Australian and international economic policy. He is a Distinguished Fellow and past President of the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society. He has written extensively on agricultural and environmental economics, among other topics. He has published over 300 journal articles, including 30 in the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
Jenny Gordon
Dr Jenny Gordon is an Honorary Professor at the Centre for Social Research and Methods, at the Australian National University. She is also a non-resident fellow at the Lowy Institute, one of Australia’s leading think tanks on foreign policy. Jenny is a member of the Australian International Agricultural Research Centre’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Advisory Panel, on the Asian Development Bank Institute’s (ADBI) Advisory Committee, and a non-executive director with NCEconomics. She is recently was a co-chair for the taskforce on Peace, Stability and Governance for the T7, organised by the ADBI. Jenny was the Chief Economist at DFAT from 2019 to 2021, tasked with setting up the Office of the Chief Economist to integrate development and trade and investment policy analysis. Jenny joined DFAT from Nous Group, where she was the inaugural Chief Economist. Her work at Nous included a report for APEC on the economic impact of investment in earth observation, understanding the motivations for and impediments to business investment in innovation for Science and Innovation Australia, and an assessment of Queensland’s innovation program. From 2007 Jenny spent 10 years with the Australian Productivity Commission as Principal Adviser (Research), where she worked on a wide range of policy reviews including regulation reform, aged care, childcare, the not-for-profit sector and migration. Joining in 1995, Jenny became a partner at the Centre for International Economics (TheCIE), where her work included financial market stabilization and development in Indonesia. Jenny has a PhD in Economics from Harvard University and started her professional career at the Reserve Bank of Australia.
Jonathan Rushton
Jonathan Rushton is an agricultural economist who specialises in the economics of animal health and food systems. His principal research interests are the: Global Burden of Animal Diseases (GBADs) where he directs a global programme with WOAH (founded as OIE); economics of antimicrobial use and resistance in livestock; and assessment of the multidimensionality of food quality and public health. He is involved in the EU funded projects: ROADMAP on the economics and social sciences of antimicrobial use in livestock; and DECIDE on data-driven approached for the prioritisation and control of non-regulated diseases. Jonathan embraces One Health approaches in the search for solutions to society’s health problems. Jonathan is professor of animal health and food systems economics at the Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, leads a University Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Food Systems and is part of the N8 Agrifood programme. He is also adjunct Professor in the School of Behavioural, Cognitive & Social Sciences of the University of New England, Australia and founding president of the International Society for Economics and Social Sciences of Animal Health. In 2020 he became a Senior IIAD Fellow in Epidemiology at Texas A&M.
John Thwaites
Professor John Thwaites AM is a Professorial Fellow, Monash University, and Chair of the Monash Sustainable Development Institute and Climateworks Centre. John is the Chair of the National Sustainable Development Council, which has developed the Transforming Australia: SDGs Progress Report 2018. He was previously Chair of the National Sustainability Council an independent Council appointed by the Australian Government, which produced the Sustainable Australia Report in 2013. He is a Co-Chair of the Leadership Council of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) launched by the Secretary General of the United Nations to provide expert advice and support to the development and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. He is also the Chair of the SDSN Association, which operates the SDSN network around the world. John was appointed Member of the Order of Australia for “significant service to the environment and to the people and Parliament of Victoria in the 2021 Australia Day Honours.
Pablo Juliano
Pablo Juliano is a supply chain transformation leader with strong background in innovation in food processing and food waste upcycling. He currently leads the Processing and Supply Chains Group, which delivers science innovation to the food industry as part of CSIRO's Food Program. His research focuses on reducing and value capturing on food losses and waste across the supply chain by upcycling into co-products using CSIRO platform technologies. Over 20 years of service to the food industry in 7 countries. He is the CSIRO representative on the National Food Waste Strategy and Implementation steering committee together with industry peak bodies, the federal and state governments and is working nationally with food clusters towards the implementation of horticultural ingredient hubs for regional development.
Speakers - ACIAR invited session
Prabhu Pingali
Prabhu Pingali is a Professor in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Global Development, and the Founding Director of the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI). He is also the Chair of the Governing Board of ICRISAT. Prior to joining Cornell, he was the Deputy Director, Agricultural Development Division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, from 2008–May 2013. He was director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Agriculture and Development Economics Division from 2002-2007. In addition, he worked with the CGIAR for 15 years from 1987-2002, first with IRRI in the Philippines and then with CIMMYT in Mexico. Dr. Pingali is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a member in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association (AAEA), and a former President of the International Association of Agricultural Economists. Pingali has written 14 books and over 200 refereed journal articles and book chapters on agriculture and food & nutrition policy.
Wahida Maghraby
Dr Wahida is an agriculture policy analyst at the Indonesian Center for Agriculture Socio Economics and Policy Studies (ICASEPS), Ministry of Agriculture. Prior to this position, from 2016 to 2020 Wahida was assigned as the Agricultural Attaché to the European Union based at the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Brussels, Belgium. From 2021-2022, Wahida participated in two ACIAR Small Research Activities, namely 1) Agricultural research and innovation In Indonesia: Assessment of constraints, challenges, and opportunities and 2) Digital Ag-tech in Indonesia’s Transforming Small Holder Agriculture Sector: Potential and Policy Options. Her daily responsibilities consist of analysing agriculture policy-related issues and providing policy briefs for the Ministry.
Silinthone Sacklokham
Professor Silinthone Sacklokham holds a PhD Degree in Agricultural Economics (2003) from AgroParisTech, France. Currently she holds several positions notably the Director General of International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Education and Sports. Dr. Silinthone is a member of the Council of the National University of Laos and she also serves as visiting lecturer and researcher of the National University of Laos in Agricultural Policies, Agrarian System and Agricultural Products Value Chain. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Silinthone Sacklokham has published and co-edited a number of journal articles in the field of Agriculture and Education development significantly are “Land Policy and Farming Practices in Laos”; “Agricultural Development and Deforestation in Lao PDR; “White Gold”, the Commercialization of Rice Farming in the Lower Mekong Basin.
Wendy Umberger
Professor Wendy Umberger is the CEO of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). She has played influential roles in sustainable agriculture for over 20 years. She founded and led the Centre for Global Food and Resources at the University of Adelaide, which engaged with policymakers and industry to make positive changes in agriculture, food, and resource systems. She has worked on food system issues across the Indo-Pacific region and led interdisciplinary value chain research projects in Asia, Australia, North America, the Pacific Islands and South Africa. Her research has explored opportunities for smallholder agricultural households to produce high-value (horticulture, dairy, beef) food products and adopt new technology to access modern food value chains. Professor Umberger is also a Director of the International Association of Agricultural Economists, a board member of Food Bank SA, an Honorary Fellow of Food Standards Australia New Zealand, a Distinguished Fellow of the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society and served as an Independent Director of Grain Producers South Australia (GPSA) for six years.
Speakers - AAEA invited session
Rodolfo M. Nayga Jr.
Rodolfo M. Nayga, Jr. is currently Professor and Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University. Dr. Nayga’s research interests include the economics of food valuation, consumption, policy, and health. Prior to rejoining Texas A&M University in 2021, Dr. Nayga was Distinguished Professor and Tyson Endowed Chair in Food Policy Economics at the University of Arkansas. He also was a faculty member at Rutgers University and at Massey University, New Zealand. He has been a Fulbright Senior Scholar at Wageningen University, The Netherlands, adjunct professor at Korea University and Norwegian Institute for Bioeconomy Research, NBER research economist, and senior research fellow of the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study in Tokyo. He also was executive board member of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association and member of the International Scientific Advisory Board of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast. He is a Fellow of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA), and currently serving as AAEA’s President and editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.
Sarah Smith
Sarah Smith is a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis where she recently obtained her PhD. Originally from Australia, Sarah earned her Bachelors Degree in Resource Economics from the University of Sydney, and spent several years as a researcher with the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences. Her research looks at the effects of extreme weather and climate change on agricultural production, and how producers make decisions and adapt to these challenges.
Scott M. Swinton
Scott M. Swinton is a University Distinguished Professor and past chairperson in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University. His research examines the economics of agricultural production and environmental management. Often working on multidisciplinary teams, his work aims to make agriculture more sustainable via improved technology, information, and incentives. Swinton is a past president of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA), which named him a Fellow in 2020.
Dan Scheitrum
Dan Scheitrum is an Assistant Professor of Agribusiness at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. His research examines the economic, trade, and financial impacts of agricultural and energy policy. Recent projects include examining the impacts of approvals of GMO products on cultivation and international trade, estimating the price impact of animal welfare legislation, and estimating the extent and consequences of market concentration in the meatpacking industry. Currently, Dr. Scheitrum is examining weather shocks in global growing regios for staple crops and how international trade reacts and its potential to serve as a climate change adaptation mechanism. Dr. Scheitrum’s research has been featured in the Washington Post, Forbes, the San Francisco Chronicle, KCBS.
Speakers - EAAE invited session
José M. Gil
José M. Gil is a Professor of Agricultural Economics at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) and Director of the Centre for Agro-food and Development Economics (CREDA). He is responsible for the Food Chain Analysis and Consumer Behaviour Team. His current research focuses on the economics of food quality and safety and related policy issues with respect to consumers, the food industry and trade.
Francisco Alcón
Francisco Alcón is a full professor in agricultural economics at Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (Murcia, Spain). He is a trained Agricultural Engineer with a specialisation in Agricultural Economics, specifically, the economics of agricultural and natural resource management. His has also worked on topics including agricultural technology adoption, non-market valuation, agricultural resources management and natural resource management policy and planning. His current research is focused on the valuation of ecosystem services and disservices of agroecosystems and the economics of agricultural practices to mitigate the climate change impact.
Anastasio J. Villanueva
Anastasio J. Villanueva is a Senior Researcher in agricultural and environmental economics and policy in the Department of Agri-food Economics in the Institute of Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training (IFAPA) in Granada (Spain). He is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Córdoba (Spain). Most of his research concerns interdisciplinary analyses involving economic, social, and environmental sciences, with a particular focus on the economic valuation of non-market services associated with agri-food production, including both supply- and demand-side assessments. He routinely collaborates in EU, national and regional research projects, which have been recognised at an international level, producing scientific publications in renown journals (incl. ERAE, JAE, CJAE, EE, LUP, JEM, among others) in which he also has regular review activity.
