Biography
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Scott H. Irwin
Biography

Scott Irwin grew up on a grain and livestock farm in west central Iowa. His interest in agricultural
economics and markets began at an early age with visits to the local grain elevator to get the latest prices from Chicago. He began formal study of agricultural economics while earning The Bachelor of Science Degree in Agricultural Business from Iowa State University and continued his studies while earning The Master of Science Degree in Agricultural Economics and The Doctor of Philosophy, both from Purdue University. After completing his Ph.D. studies in 1985, Dr. Irwin joined the faculty of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at The Ohio State University. During 1993-1994, Dr. Irwin was a Visiting Scholar in the Office for Futures and Options Research at the University of Illinois. In 1996, he was named the Francis B. McCormick Professor of Agricultural Marketing and Policy at The Ohio State University. In 1997, Dr. Irwin joined the faculty of the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois. Dr. Irwin was named the Laurence J. Norton Professor of Agricultural Marketing at the University of Illinois in 2003. He currently teaches courses on econometrics, commodity price analysis, and futures market research.

Dr. Irwin's research interests are in the areas of agricultural marketing and price analysis, agricultural risk management, performance of market advisory services, forecast evaluation, commodity market efficiency and behavior of speculators in commodity markets. His research has been published in leading academic journals such as the American Journal of Agricultural Economics , Journal of Financial and QuantitativeAnalysis , and the Journal of Futures Markets . He serves as co-director of the AgMAS project at the University of Illinois , a nationally-recognized research and outreach project that provides performance evaluations of agricultural market advisory services. Dr. Irwin also serves as the team leader of the farmdoc project at the University of Illinois , an award-winning outreach project that provides comprehensive risk management information and analysis for farmers and agribusinesses in the U.S. He is a co-developer of the popular iFARM on-line decision tools that are designed to assist crop farmers with evaluation of crop insurance decisions. More than $4 million in competitive grants have been awarded to Dr. Irwin and his collaborators to support these research and outreach programs. In 2002, he received the Distinguished Group Extension Award from the American Agricultural Economics Association as part of the farmdoc team. In 2004, he received the College of Agricultural , Consumer and Environmental Science Team Award from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Donald A. Holt Achievement Award from the Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research, each as part of the farmdoc team.