Cornell named Jinhua Zhao as the David J. Nolan Dean for the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management on June 17, following the announcements of the new deans of Cornell Law School and the School of Public Policy earlier this week. Zhao, who comes to Cornell from Michigan State University, will begin his appointment on July 1.
Zhao will replace Prof. Edward McLaughlin, marketing, who served as interim dean since July 2020. McLaughlin also filled this role in 2016 and 2017, before Lynn Perry Wooten was appointed. The Dyson School has been searching for a permanent dean since Wooten left to become the president of Simmons University in Boston in February 2020.
Zhao’s research interests include resource management, climate change and renewable energy. He previously directed Michigan State’s Environmental Science and Policy Program, which hosts research symposiums and offers a Doctoral Dual Major in Environmental Science and Policy, for eight years.
At Michigan State, Zhao has held joint tenure in the Department of Economics and the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Research Economics, where he teaches both graduate and undergraduate classes in microeconomics, resource management and climate change.
Zhao’s work has been funded by many national organizations including the Environmental Protection Agency, where he is involved in the Science Advisory Board and Board of Scientific Counselors.
Zhao earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Science and Technology Beijing, a master’s in agricultural economics from the University of Guleph and a Ph.D. in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California, Berkeley.