Perspectives On Line - Kerry Smith elected to National Academy of Sciences

National Academy of Sciences member Kerry Smith.

r. V. Kerry Smith, an environmental economist with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Smith is one of 72 scientists elected to the prestigious academy this year.

Smith, University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, is director of the university’s Center for Environmental and Resource Economic Policy. He also teaches resource and environmental economics at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

Smith is an expert in the area of assessing natural resource damage, evaluating regulations for air and water quality, assessing risk reductions from hazardous wastes policies, and applying microeconomic analyses of transportation and environmental policies.

His latest research, supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, considers the prospects for linking economic and ecological models to enhance the evaluation of environmental policies. The work focuses on evaluating the benefits from protecting watersheds.

Smith also recently completed a book, published by Harvard University Press, with Frank Sloan and Donald Taylor of Duke University on improving the information provided to long-term smokers about the health risks. The book is titled The Smoking Puzzle: Information, Risk Perception, and Choice.

He has also studied the effects of air pollution in Southern California. To investigate how point and mobile source air pollution policies have influenced housing markets, the effort has assembled one of the largest databases linking air quality to the sales prices of residential properties.

Smith received bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in economics from Rutgers University in 1966 and 1970, respectively. He served on the faculty at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, the State University of New York at Binghamton, UNC-Chapel Hill and Vanderbilt before joining N.C. State’s faculty in 1987. In 1994, he was named Arts and Sciences Professor of Environmental Economics at Duke University before returning to NCSU in 1999.

In the mid-1970s, Smith was a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow. In 1989 he received the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists’ Distinguished Service Award. In 1992 he presented the Frederick V. Waugh Lecture to the American Agricultural Economics Association, and in 2002 he was named a Fellow of that Association.

Smith is a past president the Southern Economic Association and the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. He also served as the first co-chair of the Environmental Economics Advisory Committee of EPA’s Science Advisory Board.

—Dee Shore


		Kerry Smith elected to National Academy of Sciences r. V. Kerry Smith, an environmental economist with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Smith is one of 72 scientists elected to the prestigious academy this year. Smith, University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, is director of the university’s Center for Environmental and Resource Economic Policy. He also teaches resource and environmental economics at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Smith is an expert in the area of assessing natural resource damage, evaluating regulations for air and water quality, assessing risk reductions from hazardous wastes policies, and applying microeconomic analyses of transportation and environmental policies. His latest research, supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, considers the prospects for linking economic and ecological models to enhance the evaluation of environmental policies. The work focuses on evaluating the benefits from protecting watersheds. Smith also recently completed a book, published by Harvard University Press, with Frank Sloan and Donald Taylor of Duke University on improving the information provided to long-term smokers about the health risks. The book is titled The Smoking Puzzle: Information, Risk Perception, and Choice. He has also studied the effects of air pollution in Southern California. To investigate how point and mobile source air pollution policies have influenced housing markets, the effort has assembled one of the largest databases linking air quality to the sales prices of residential properties. Smith received bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in economics from Rutgers University in 1966 and 1970, respectively. He served on the faculty at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, the State University of New York at Binghamton, UNC-Chapel Hill and Vanderbilt before joining N.C. State’s faculty in 1987. In 1994, he was named Arts and Sciences Professor of Environmental Economics at Duke University before returning to NCSU in 1999. In the mid-1970s, Smith was a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow. In 1989 he received the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists’ Distinguished Service Award. In 1992 he presented the Frederick V. Waugh Lecture to the American Agricultural Economics Association, and in 2002 he was named a Fellow of that Association. Smith is a past president the Southern Economic Association and the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. He also served as the first co-chair of the Environmental Economics Advisory Committee of EPA’s Science Advisory Board. —Dee Shore