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The University of New Mexico
Photo: Janie Chermak

Janie Chermak

Professor and Chair
Department of Economics

Education

PhD, Civil Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2010

MS, Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2005

BS, Civil Engineering, National Autonomous University of Honduras, 2001

Contact Information

 ECON 1006C
 
 Website

Profile

Janie Chermak is a Professor of Economics at The University of New Mexico, where she's been a faculty member since 1995. She's an applied microeconomist, specializing in natural resources and dynamic optimization. Her research focuses on production, consumption, and conservation of resources, emphasizing energy and water. Her multidisciplinary approach combines physical sciences and economics to improve understanding of complex systems. Current research includes consumer acceptance of distributed microgrids; response to renewable energy; produced water management; and the economics of carbon sequestration. She is a former associate editor of Water Resources Research and a current topics editor for Resources. She is an invited technical member of the NM's Grid Modernization Committee; served as an invited committee member for the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council's Selling the Nation's Helium Reserve and for the American Physical Society's Responding to the U.S. Research Community’s Liquid Helium Crisis. Her research has been published in the Journal of Environmental and Economic Management, Water Resources Research, Energy Economics, Economic Inquiry, Journal of Environmental Management, Applied Environmental Letters, and Resource and Energy Economics, among others. Her current research is funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, NM's Environmental Department, and the Water Resources Research Institute. She's advised over 40 graduate students. Placements include Princeton, University of Minnesota, the Navel Postgraduate School, New Mexico State University, Sandia National Laboratories, Las Alamos National Laboratories, as well as private industry, federal and state government. She is the department's former chair and current graduate director.

Teaching Interests

  • Microeconomics
  • Natural Resource Modeling
  • Energy Economics
  • Industrial Organization

Research Interests

  • Natural Resource Economics
  • Energy Economics
  • Multidisciplinary Modeling