ECON PhD with special track in Remote Sensing at Virginia Tech

Spatially explicit analysis has become increasingly important in applied economic research, especially in light of climate change. Prominent examples include the economic implications of forest mortality and changes in forest composition over time, agricultural productivity under different climatic stressors and human interventions, and the effect of spatially differentiated environmental changes on housing markets.

Virginia Tech (VT) offers a unique opportunity to combine a PhD program in Economics (jointly administered through the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics and the Department of Economics) with an Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Remote Sensing (RS-IGEP).

PhD Econ/RS-IGEP students take an additional 12 course credits based on four courses related to Remote Sensing, and participate in a weekly seminar, in addition to their standard curriculum leading to the PhD in economics. By completing these requirements, PhD Econ/RS-IGEP students will earn a certificate in Remote Sensing.

More importantly, RS-IGEP students can tap into VT's premier research group in this area for research and dissertation advising. There are also some funding opportunities for RS-IGEP graduate students, beyond those that might be available from their home department.

In a nutshell, the PhD Econ/RS-IGEP combination is ideal for prospective PhD students in applied economics that have an interest in spatially explicit research, or envision remote sensing to become an important tool in their dissertation work, or – looking further - their targeted career.

More details on this exciting opportunity are given at the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics web site at http://www.aaec.vt.edu/graduate/academic-information/remote-sending-track.pdf , as well as the RS-IGEP home page at http://rsigep.frec.vt.edu/.

We hope you "sense" the potential of this new program at VT to provide you with a unique graduate experience as well as extra tools for the job market, and join us for the fall 2016 semester!