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Announcements for Friday, May 11, 2012

Announcements

  • New baby boy for Nate Kauffman

    Congratulations to Nate Kauffman and his wife on the birth of their son Calvin Scott Kauffman. Calvin was born on Friday, May 4th at 2:08am, weighing in at 8 lbs. 8 oz. and 21.5 in. long. The department wishes Kauffman and his family all the best!

News

  • Stone and Artz study Iowa communities 15 years before and after Wal-Mart

    Ken Stone, an Iowa State emeritus economics professor; and Georgeanne Artz, a visiting assistant professor of economics in ISU's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, have authored a new study comparing retail sales in Iowa communities 15 years before and after Wal-Mart's entry into a community. While host towns showed moderate increases in total retail sales in the 15 years following the stores' opening, the study found that neighboring communities without Wal-Mart stores have also seen their sales largely stabilized during the same 15-year period. However, Stone points out that, "One has to keep in mind that most of that gain was by Wal-Mart stores, and they did have negative impacts on a lot of other businesses in town -- mainly any store that was selling essentially the same thing they were selling." Read the full story here by Mike Ferlazzo, ISU News Service: http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2012/may/WalMart

  • Weekly Media Connections for the Department of Economics
    • William Edwards spoke with Jean Simmit, Agri-News; Matt Wilde, Waterloo Courier; Doug Cooper, WHO radio, regarding the new ISU cash rental rates survey.
    •  Ron Prescott spoke with Patt Johnson of the Des Moines Register, and a reporter from WHO, on Mother's Day retail sales projections.
    • Dave Swenson was interviewed by Bill Petroski,a business reporter with The Des Moines Register, who had a question about increased miles traveled on Iowa highways as an indicator of whether the economy was recovering.  Given the fact there was something of a run-up in gas prices in the spring, Swenson suggested the increased miles were likely more linked to greater economic activity to include more commuting trips for Iowa workers as well as increased trucking shipments.

Graduate Student Announcements

  • Dissertation and Postdoctoral Fellowship Programs Announced
  • Coordinator for student IT workshop series needed

    The computer committee is looking for a graduate student to coordinate IT workshop series in Fall 2012. Responsibilities include teaching an introductory workshop on departmental computer resources for graduate students, locating students willing to teach other workshops in the series (topics include Matlab, R, Stata, Gauss, etc. -- at the coordinator's discretion; these students are paid on hourly basis), and managing logistics of the series. Compensation is at the regular 1/2 TA rate (including tuition, benefits and regular TA salary). Contact oz9a@iastate.edu for details.

Conferences and Calls for Papers

Funding Opportunities

  • Nominations for Garfield Award Due June 22

    Research!America is proud to announce a call for nominations for the 11th annual Garfield Economic Impact Award. Established in 2002, this annual award recognizes outstanding research demonstrating the economic impact of medical and health research, including research-based innovations in the medical or health care delivery arena. Founding support for the Garfield Award was provided by the Eugene Garfield Foundation. A grant from Merck & Co., Inc. in 2010 supports the Garfield Award and the tradition of extending an honorarium of $10,000 for the winning publication. The 2012 Garfield Award will be presented in the month of November, in Washington, DC.

    The Garfield Award committee will consider nominations received by the close of business June 22, 2012.

    Nominations should include:

    • A copy of the publication or thesis.
    • A 200-word statement summarizing the reasons the work should be recognized, particularly describing how the work illustrates the economic impact of medical and health research, including research-based innovations in the medical or health care delivery arena.
    • To be considered, the work must have been published or accepted for publication between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2011.

    To promote growth of the field, the Garfield Award committee encourages, but does not require, that nominated work be conducted by early-career researchers. Self-nominations are welcome.

    Please submit nomination materials to garfieldaward@researchamerica.org or by mail to:

    Garfield Award Committee, Research!America, 1101 King Street, Suite 520, Alexandria, VA 22314-2960

    For more information, contact Ellie Dehoney, Vice President, Policy and Programs, at 571.482.2717 or at edehoney@researchamerica.org.

  • IFPRI Dissertation Research Fellowships on Gender and Agriculture: Call for Applications
  • NIFA Methyl Bromide Transitions Program (MBT)