DURHAM, NC – Zack Brown, a 2011 graduate of 91’s Nicholas School of the Environment, has been named a recipient of the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award by the Agricultural & Applied Economic Association.

The award recognizes professional excellence in the development of a doctoral dissertation within the fields of agriculture and applied economics. 

Brown’s research focused on the ways in which economics can contribute to the major economic, sociobehavioral and biophysical challenges of developing, implementing and evaluating malaria control programs. 

Brown’s dissertation advisor was Randy Kramer, professor of environmental economics and global health at the Nicholas School and deputy director of the Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI).  Brown received DGHI funding to help support his dissertation fieldwork. 

“Zack’s dissertation contains key lessons for malaria control policy, while at the same time making significant intellectual contributions to interdisciplinary research at the intersection of economics and evolutionary biology,” Kramer noted.

Brown is now working as an environmental economist at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.  He also is continuing to collaborate with Kramer and several African partners on a project to develop and apply a decision-support tool to help policymakers make evidence-based decisions about malaria control in East Africa.