UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Karen Fisher-Vanden, professor of environmental and resource economics and public policy in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, has been named a distinguished professor by Penn State’s Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs.
The title of distinguished professor at Penn State recognizes the academic contributions of current, full-time faculty members who hold the rank of professor. Distinguished professors are acknowledged leaders in their fields of research or creative activity; demonstrate significant leadership in raising the University’s standards in teaching, research or creative activity, and service; and exhibit excellent teaching skills.
Fisher-Vanden is an internationally recognized expert of environmental and energy economics within the coupled human-earth systems area, noted László Kulcsár, head of the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education.
“Dr. Fisher-Vanden’s scholarship of research and teaching, her leadership and administrative skills, and her relentless commitment to excellence well qualifies her for this recognition,” Kulcsár wrote in his nomination letter.
Fisher-Vanden holds bachelor’s degrees in computer science/mathematics and economics from the University of California, Davis, a master’s degree in management science from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a doctorate in public policy from Harvard University.
Before joining Penn State in 2008, she was an associate professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College and a research fellow in the Center for Business and Government, John F. Kennedy School of Government, at Harvard University. She also served as a senior research scientist, Global Climate Change Group, Battelle, Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, Washington, D.C.
Her research areas include economic and integrated assessment modeling for climate change impact and policy analysis, economic instruments for pollution control, technology development in developing countries, and implications for energy use and carbon emissions.
Fisher-Vanden conducted research in China involving international collaborations with colleagues at the National Bureau of Statistics in China and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Her research has been published in journals such as the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, the Journal of Development Economics, and the Journal of Economic Perspectives.
She has led several large, externally funded research programs. Currently, she serves as co-director and principal investigator of the Program on Coupled Human and Earth Systems, a large cooperative research agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
During her tenure at Penn State, Fisher Vanden has attracted more than $61 million in external funding. With the most recent grant she received — a five-year, $17.5 million award from the federal Department of Energy’s Office of Science — she seeks to understand how interconnected systems are exposed to natural hazards that create vulnerabilities and risks for society and how societies respond and adapt to these risks.
This award builds on a recently completed $20 million, five-year project for which she was co-director and the principal investigator of the Penn State sub-award of $10 million. The project, which included six faculty co-principal investigators across four colleges, entailed developing new, state-of-the-art, integrated modeling frameworks to drive advances in the quantitative understanding of coupled systems, and risk and response behaviors.
“This award is considered outstanding in both scope and funding in social sciences, and brought significant recognition to Penn State,” Kulcsár said.
Fisher-Vanden was a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report Working Group III, a previous member of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program Product Development Advisory Committee and lead author of a congressionally mandated Climate Change Science Program report on global change scenarios.
“This work, in particular, highlights her scholarly approach to conduct research on policy-relevant issues and subsequently use results to inform policy decisions, further advancing Penn State’s land grant mission,” Kulcsár said.
Fisher-Vanden also was a member of the Environmental Protection Agency’s science advisory board on economywide modeling. She currently serves on the editorial boards of Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Energy Economics, and the Journal of Global Economic Analysis.
This past November, she was elected president of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. In this role, she is responsible for the overall welfare of the association, working with its board of directors and providing leadership at association meetings.
In addition to her teaching and research responsibilities at Penn State, Fisher-Vanden serves as director of the Institute for Sustainable Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Science. Housed in the College of Agricultural Sciences, this institute focuses on interdisciplinary research addressing the complex challenges of predicting vulnerabilities in systems, feeding a growing population, environmental resilience and economic sustainability.
“Dr. Fisher-Vanden brought energy, motivation and above all a very high-quality scholarship to this role,” Kulcsár said. “In a short time, it had become clear that she has not only the disciplinary and interdisciplinary expertise, but also the leadership and organizational skills to guide the institute through its infancy during the pandemic challenges.”
He added that he is confident that the Institute for Sustainable Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Science will be considered as one of the flagship research institutes for the college and the University in the future, which is a testament to Fisher-Vanden’s leadership.
Fisher-Vanden said she is very honored to be recognized as a distinguished professor. “Of course, my success was only possible because of the wonderful collaborations and support I’ve received from many faculty, students and staff at Penn State,” she said. “I am incredibly grateful.”