Economist profs now Royal Society fellows
Mark Jaccard, 778.782.4219; mark_jaccard@sfu.ca
Arthur Robson, 778.782.4669; robson@sfu.ca
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.4323
Simon Fraser University professors Mark Jaccard and Arthur Robson, both internationally known economists, are the Royal Society of Canada’s latest fellows.
Election to fellowship in the society is considered Canadian scientists’ and scholars’ highest academic accolade.
Jaccard is an internationally known leader in the development of energy-economy models used to determine the costs and effectiveness of policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas.
Jaccard has advised governments across the political spectrum and around the world on environmental policy, including B.C.’s own Climate Action Team. Recognized as one of Canada’s top experts on environmental policy, he is also a member of the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy.
A prolific writer on sustainable energy modeling and policy, Jaccard is co-author of Hot Air: Meeting Canada’s Climate Change Challenge (2007), Sustainable Fossil Fuels: The Unusual Suspect in the Quest for Clean and Enduring Energy (2005), the Donner Prize winner for top policy book in Canada, and The Cost of Climate Policy (2002), which earned the Outstanding Research Contribution Award from the Canadian Policy Research Institute.
B.C.’s Confederation of University Faculty Associations chose Jaccard as its Academic of the Year in 2008.
Robson, who holds SFU’s Canada Research Chair in Economic Theory and Evolution, researches “the biological underpinnings” of how evolution influences human economic behavior and its implications for economic theory.
He continues to take his research in new directions, fine-tuning his focus towards ‘behavioral’ economics. His research is determining how evolution has shaped the links between longevity, intelligence and aging. Further work will examine the evolution of preferences – time preferences, in particular – as well as the implications of status.
Robson’s research, which bridges biology, anthropology and economics, has led to new insights that are transforming how scientists look at human economic behavior.
Robson is also one of a rare few Canadian Fellows of the Econometric Society. In 2000 he was awarded a Canada Council for the Arts Killam Research Fellowship and early in his career received a Fulbright Fellowship.
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