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About Us - Associate Directors
Director
 

 

The Center has created program areas, each led by an Associate Director. The background and expertise of the seven AIC Associate Directors are described below.

Julian M. Alston
Science and Technology

e-mail:julian@primal.ucdavis.edu
Julian M. Alston is a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics of the UC Davis. He teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in microeconomic theory and the analysis of agricultural markets and policies. Prior to beginning his current position in 1988, Alston was Chief Economist in the Department of Agriculture in Victoria, Australia, where he had been employed in various capacities since 1975. His experience in public policy analysis and advice, and in administration of a large scientific organization has shaped Alston's research interests in the economic analysis of agricultural markets and public policies concerning agricultural incomes, prices, trade, and agricultural research and promotion. Along with many articles in professional journals, he is a co-author of two recent books: Making Science Pay: The Economics of Agricultural R&D Policy and Science under Scarcity: Principles and Practice for Agricultural Research Evaluation and Priority Setting. Alston was raised on the family farm in northern Victoria, Australia. He has a Bachelor's degree in Agricultural Science from the University of Melbourne in 1974; a Master's degree in Agricultural Economics from La Trobe University in 1978; and a PhD in Economics from North Carolina State University in 1984.

Colin A. Carter

International Trade
e-mail:cacarter@ucdavis.edu
Colin A. Carter has been a Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Davis for 12 years, after serving as a professor at the University of Manitoba. His research investigates problems related to agricultural policy and trade, with a focus on grain markets in the Pacific Rim. He has written extensively on state trading enterprises in grains. Carter has studied the internal grain economy in China and China's participation in the international market. From 1986-89, Carter held a fellowship in international food systems from the Kellogg Foundation. Along with scores of professional journal articles, chapters and reports, Carter has co-authored several books, the topics of which include China's grain markets, futures markets, and U.S. agricultural policy. Carter was raised on a grain farm in Alberta, Canada, and received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Alberta. His PhD in Agricultural Economics is from UC Berkeley in 1980.

Karen M. Klonsky
Agricultural Environmental Management
e-mail: klonsky@primal.ucdavis.edu
Karen Klonsky has been a Specialist in Cooperative Extension in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of California at Davis since 1981.  Her interest in alternative farming systems began with her dissertation work comparing alfalfa management systems with and without integrated pest management.  Since then she has done extensive research into the economic feasibility of alternative and organic farming practices for field crops, vegetables, and tree crops collaborating on a range of interdisciplinary research projects.  Her interest in organic agriculture led her to analyze the growth and structure of organic farm production in California over the last decade.
Since 1983 Dr. Klonsky has directed the development of cost and return studies for the major crops in California through UC Cooperative Extension and the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.  The studies are distributed worldwide and are now available through the department web page. Klonsky serves as an editor for the Journal of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers.  She has a PhD in agricultural economics from Michigan State University and an undergraduate degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan.

Keith Knapp
Resources and the Environment
e-mail:keith.knapp@ucr.edu
Keith Knapp was born in Wichita, Kansas, and raised in Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa. He received a B.S. in Economics from Iowa State University in 1972. After two years of military service, his educational career resumed at Johns Hopkins University where he received a PhD from the College of Engineering in 1980, specializing in resource and environmental economics. He has been with UC Riverside since September of 1980. He is currently Professor of Resource Economics and Resource Economist in the Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences at UC Riverside. Professor Knapp teaches four courses in resource and environmental economics at the undergraduate and graduate level. He has conducted research on irrigation management, salinity and drainage problems in the San Joaquin Valley, renewable resource management with an emphasis on groundwater, agricultural markets (grain reserves and perennial crops), and the implications of exhaustible resources for economic growth. Current research interests are generally the economics of natural resource use and environmental quality as related to irrigated agriculture with an emphasis on water management.

Scott D. Rozelle
China Programs
e-mail:rozelle@primal.ucdavis.edu
Dr. Rozelle received his B.S. from UC Berkeley, and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Cornell University. He is a member of the American Economics Association, American Agricultural Economics Association, International Association for Agricultural Economists, Asian Studies Association and Association of Comparative Economics. Professor Rozelle has received numerous honors and awards in recognition of his outstanding achievements. He is the UC Davis 2000 Chancellor Fellow, an award given each year to one of the university's outstanding faculty members. Dr. Rozelle's research focuses almost exclusively on China and is concerned with three general themes; a) agricultural policy, including the supply, demand, and trade in agricultural projects; b) the emergence and evolution of markets and other economic institutions in the transition process and their implications for equity and efficiency; and c) the economics of poverty and inequality. In the past several years his papers have been published in top academic journals, including Science and the American Economic Review.He is widely recognized as one of the leading economists in the U.S. with expertise on China's large and important agricultural sector. He has a good publication record (see publication list below). He is fluent in Chinese and has established a research program based on a knowledge and appreciation of China. He has close working ties with several Chinese collaborators. He is the chair of the International Advisory Board of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy.

Jerome B. Siebert
Agribusiness Issues
e-mail:siebert@are.berkeley.edu
Jerry Siebert is an economist in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Berkeley. Prior to this assignment, he was Director of U.C. Cooperative Extension. In addition to his academic experience, he has held positions in both business and government. In the latter assignments, he was special assistant to four U.S. Secretaries of Agriculture. He also has a farming background on a family farm in Madera, California. His work centers on research and education involving the impacts on California agriculture of changes in public policies affecting production and marketing of California agricultural commodities. In particular, he analyzes the use of market mechanisms to evaluate the potential economic effects of changes in public policy. His current focus is the role of technology in California agriculture and changes needed in industry and research institutions to facilitate the development and application of agricultural biotechnology. He is also an active participant in a Russian project to facilitate the transfer of technology in a market economy.In addition to his work at the University of California, he is an "ex-officio" member of the California State Consolidated Farm Services Committee, a public member on the California Walnut Commission and chairman of the Walnut Marketing Board, president of the San Francisco Farmers Club, and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Agribusiness Management Association.

Alvin D. Sokolow
Rural/Urban Interactions
e-mail:ajsokolow@ucdavis.edu
Alvin D. Sokolow is a Public Policy Specialist with UC Cooperative Extension, housed in the Department of Human and Community Development on the Davis campus. Formerly a Professor of Political Science at Davis for 27 years, his research and extension activities deal with issues and processes of community and state governance. He has published 72 journal articles, monographs and other reports. Current and recent work concentrates on farmland and land use policy in California, state-local public finance, and politics and policy in small communities. Sokolow has been a key participant in AIC projects since 1989, including the Williamson Act, Central Valley, and urban-agricultural edge projects. He is the editor of the Center's series, California Farmland and Open Space Policy. A Chicago native, Sololow's degrees from the University of Illinois are: undergraduate in Journalism, and M.A. and PhD in Political Science. He has taught at Western Michigan University, Michigan State University, and the University of Illinois, and has been a visiting scholar at Montana State University and Miami University.In addition to his farmland publications at the Agricultural Issues Center, Sokolow is author of the California Policy Seminar CPS brief,Farmland Policy in California's Central Valley: State, County, and City Roles.

 


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