Athens, Ga. – University of Georgia economist Jeffrey Dorfman recently was named a fellow of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, the top professional association for agricultural and natural resource economists.
His contributions in econometrics include advances in modeling and forecasting and popularizing Bayesian econometrics within agricultural and applied economics. Dorfman started his career in academics just as computers were becoming more commonplace in university research labs and was one of the first economists to use new numerical integration methods to attack the complex and painstaking math needed to apply Bayesian probability principles to economics.
“Dr. Dorfman is a top-notch economist and extremely well respected in our profession,” said Octavio Ramirez, head of the department of agricultural and applied economics in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “His initiation as AAEA fellow at such an early stage of his career is a great honor for him, our department and the University of Georgia.”
Dorfman is the first professor in the 85-year history of the department of agricultural and applied economics to be named a fellow-the highest recognition bestowed by the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
“It’s a big honor, and I am very pleased to get it,” he said.
Since joining the faculty of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Science in 1989, Dorfman has built a reputation across Georgia by commenting on local government finance and land use and by providing frequent training sessions for the state’s local government officials on these issues. In addition to his research and outreach, he has taught numerous courses microeconomics, macroeconomics, econometrics and agricultural marketing.
In August, Dorfman will accept his award in Washington, D.C. at the joint meeting of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association and the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society.
He has served the association as co-editor and associate editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, as chair of the Econometrics Section and member and chair of numerous AAEA committees. He received his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Davis. He also is a founding member of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis.
The Agricultural and Applied Economics Association is an international non-profit association serving the professional interests of members working in agricultural and broadly related fields of applied economics. For more information, see http://www.aaea.org/.
For more information on the UGA department of agricultural and applied economics, see http://www.caes.uga.edu/departments/agecon/.