Sarah Ayers (ICP ’06) was sworn in as a foreign affairs officer (civil service) for the U.S. Department of State in September. She works in the Office of Missile Threat Reduction.

Adjunct Professor Brent Eastwood was appointed to the Commission on Employment for the City of Alexandria, Virginia. This 13-member board of representatives from business, educational agencies, organized labor, and economic development agencies is appointed by the mayor and the city council.

Matthew Hardy (TPOL ’02 and current PhD student) had his paper "A Case Study in Addressing the 2005 BRAC Recommendations: Implementing Bus Rapid Transit in the Route 1 Corridor" selected as the transportation policy student paper winner by the Virginia Department of Transportation. As the winner, Hardy received a plaque and a monetary award, and presented the paper on November 8 at the 56th Virginia Transportation Conference in Roanoke.

Professor Andrew Hughes Hallett was recognized as a pioneer and major scientist in quantitative economic policy analysis with the book, Quantitative Economic Policy, published by Springer, November 2007. The volume, edited by Reinhard Neck, Christian Richter, and Peter Mooslechner is part of the series: Advances in Computational Economics.

Jody Keenan (State Director of the Virginia Small Development Center) was elected the next Chair for the Association of Small Business Development Centers. Read full story.

Adriana Kocornik-Mina (PhD ’07) won the 2007 Regional Science Association International Dissertation Award. The judges, highly respected scholars in the field of Regional Science, commented on the clarity of writing, the thoroughness of the literature review, and the quality of research. According to the judges, “the dissertation is an important contribution to the field of Regional Science, as it correctly applies the principles of a field of Regional Science that undergoes a buoyant expansion, spatial econometrics.” The award was presented at the RSAI conference in Savannah, Georgia, in November.

Professor Martin Sherwin was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at a ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in October 2007. Sherwin is a member of the academy’s 227th class of fellows. Other inductees in the group of 202 new fellows and 23 new foreign honorary members are former vice president Al Gore, former Supreme Court associate justice Sandra Day O'Connor, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, Google chair and CEO Eric Schmidt; New York Times investigative correspondent James Risen; filmmaker Spike Lee; acclaimed chef, activist, and cookbook author Alice Waters; and Pixar chief creative officer John Lasseter. New members are nominated and elected by current members of the academy.