Curriculum Vitae

Jess Lowenberg-DeBoer is professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Associate Dean and Director of International Programs in Agriculture (IPIA) at Purdue University. In IPIA he coordinates the international efforts of the Purdue College of Agriculture, including study abroad, research and capacity building programs in developing countries, collegial partnerships outside the U.S., and international extension. His research focuses on agricultural production economics, including soil fertility management, cropping systems, technology adoption, risk management and financing.

Dr. Lowenberg-DeBoer‘s current research and extension efforts in the Americas concentrate on the economics of site-specific farming and information technology. He is a pioneer in the use of spatial regression in analysis of crop data. In West Africa he is identified with innovation in cowpea (vigna unguiculata) production, post-harvest handling and marketing. Since 1997 he has been West Africa facilitator for the USAID Bean/Cowpea Collaborative Research Support Program (CRSP) working to build multidisciplinary teams and supervising CRSP social science research. From 1988 to 1992 he served as economist and team leader of a USAID funded institution building project in Niger. From 1992 to 1994 he was campus coordinator for a similar project in Burkina Faso. In addition, his work has taken him to Afghanistan, Angola, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, China, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Italy, Kenya, Mali, Malawi, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.

Lowenberg-DeBoer has a Masters degree in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Iowa State University, Ames. He joined the Purdue faculty in 1985, dividing his time between the West Lafayette campus and Purdue activities in West Africa. He returned in 1992 from a four year tour of duty in the Republic of Niger, West Africa, where he served as economist and team leader for a Purdue University project. He brings to his research and teaching a perspective gained through private sector experience as farmer and journalist western Iowa.