Bruce A. McCarl
Dr. McCarl is an agricultural economist who was trained in management science/optimization theory. The main thrust of his work has addressed national level agricultural and in cases forest sector appraisal of the economic consequences of environmental outcomes and policy actions. He has addressed food, energy and water, climate change effects, greenhouse gas mitigation, biofuel production/policy, bioelectricity, farm program revisions, and climate change adaptation. Models he led development of have been adopted for use by USDA, and USEPA. He is a fellow of three agricultural economics associations plus the American Academy for the Advancement of Science. He was a participant in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the IPCC.
Laura Bakkensen
Dr. Laura Bakkensen is the Mikesell Professor in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics at the University of Oregon. Her research explores the economics of natural disasters, using applied microeconomics and econometrics to assess global risks and adaptation to disaster damages and fatalities. She provides policy-relevant insights on insurance regulation, disaster aid, forecasts and warning information, and adaptation strategies. Dr. Bakkensen holds a Ph.D. from Yale University, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and a B.A. from Whitman College. Her work has appeared in journals such as the Journal of Political Economy, PNAS, and the Review of Financial Studies, and has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Gulf Research Program Early-Career Research Fellowship.
Atul Jain
Dr. Atul Jain’s research focuses on understanding and predicting the behavior of Earth’s system using advanced computational modeling. He leads a team that has developed a pioneering global model-data integration framework, ISAM, leveraging satellite and ground-based observations to examine the net fluxes of biogeochemical cycles, water, and energy. Dr. Jain’s work has been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Award. He has played pivotal roles as a lead and contributing author for major Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments. In 2021, Reuters listed him as one of the “World’s Top Climate Scientists. With over 250 scientific articles, including seminal contributions in top-tier journals such as Nature and Science, Clarivate Analytics has consistently recognized him as one of the “Most Highly Cited” Researchers. His outstanding contributions led to his election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the American Geophysical Union (AGU). He received the Distinguished Alumni Award from IIT Delhi in 2024
Mark Skidmore
Mark Skidmore serves as Professor and Morris Chair in State and Local Government Finance at Michigan State University. He has joint appointments in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics and the Department of Economics, and is a Distinguished Scholar at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Professor Skidmore conducts research on public sector economics, regional economics, health, and the economics of disasters. He has provided technical and consulting services on a range of issues related to economic development and government finance/policy. He has edited three books and published more than 100 articles in peer reviewed journals. His work has been funded by organizations such as the Fulbright Program, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation, the Urban Institute, US Agency for International Development, US Department of Agriculture, National Science Foundation, and the US Department of Health and Human Services. His work has been cited in prominent news outlets such as the BBC, Boston Globe, CNNMoney, Economist, Forbes, MSNBC, Newsweek, New Yorker, New York Times, PBS News Hour, Reuters, and the Washington Post.