Join us in welcoming Le Chen to the department! Chen’s new role is in sustainable agricultural production, with an appointment of 75 percent research and 25 percent teaching.

Chen’s scholarly work falls broadly under the rubric of applied production economics and risk analysis. Her research efforts have mostly focused on the economics of soil health management practices (i.e., winter cover crops and no-till system) and crop insurance. She describes the key aspect of her research as the sound application of econometric methods, risk theory, and dynamic optimization modeling to address important policy-relevant problems in sustainable agricultural production and risk management.

Prior to joining the department, she worked in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at North Carolina State University for one year as a postdoctoral research associate. She earned a PhD in economics from North Carolina State University, a master’s in economics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and a bachelor’s in economics from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

“In my new position at UT, I would like to develop my research on the consequences of conservation technologies or policies that lead to their effects on different dimensions of agricultural production, so that we can provide information and identify policies that can improve both economic profits and long-term environmental sustainability,” said Chen. “I envision collaborating with the research and teaching faculty of the department to further enhance and expand these research initiatives.”