In the last few years, Department of Economics and Econometrics faculty have been recognized with several research grant awards from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD, part of the National Institutes of Health) and the Russell Sage Foundation.
"The importance of winning grants such as these can hardly be over-estimated," says Daniel Myers, associate dean for research, centers, and the social sciences in Notre Dame's College of Arts and Letters. "[These] agencies … conduct extraordinarily rigorous review processes before they allocate funds. Receiving these kinds of grants indicates that the department is not only producing superior quality research but also research that is relevant to people's lives in the real world."
Between them, William Evans, Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Economics, and Assistant Professors Kasey Buckles and Daniel Hungerman won four multiyear grants from the two agencies for projects initiated from 2006 to 2009, including one Buckles and Hungerman are pursuing together. Surprising findings from their study, which is now supported by the NICHD and explores why the season of a baby's birth appears to influence later outcomes, were profiled in The Wall Street Journal in September.
"The funding itself is a boon to Notre Dame both by directly supporting our research programs," Myers says, "and by allowing expanded opportunities for student learning and research training as they become involved as research partners in these projects."
Department faculty have been recognized in other ways recently, as well. For instance, Buckles was selected for the 2008–09 Emerging Scholars Program at the Center for Poverty Research at the University of Kentucky, from which she also received a Young Investigator Development Grant.
Christopher Waller, Gilbert F. Schaefer Professor of Economics, was appointed a senior vice president and the director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, a position he assumed in June (see related story).
Assistant Professor Abigail Wozniak spent the past academic year as a visiting fellow in the Industrial Relations Section of Princeton University's Department of Economics. In addition, Wozniak was named a research fellow of IZA (Institute for the Study of Labor) in Bonn, Germany.
Interdisciplinary Research Nets Funding From NOAA
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) just awarded a five-year, $2.5 million grant to a Notre Dame study that will investigate the spread and bioeconomic impact of aquatic invasive species in the Great Lakes. David Lodge, professor of biological sciences, and Richard Jensen, professor of economics and chair of the Department of Economics and Econometrics, are co-principal investigators on the project.