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Verhoogen Named Vice Dean for Academic Affairs

Posted Jul 12 2015

Eric Verhoogen, an associate professor at SIPA and in Columbia’s Department of Economics, has been named as SIPA’s new vice dean for academic affairs by Dean Merit E. Janow.

As vice dean, Verhoogen will be responsible for faculty recruitment and faculty development. He replaced Miguel Urquiola, who held the role for three years, on July 1.

“Since joining the SIPA faculty more than a decade ago, Professor Verhoogen has distinguished himself as a scholar, teacher, and colleague, and also as a leader in the creation and ongoing work of our Center for Development Economics and Policy (CDEP),” Janow said. “As vice dean, he will play a central role in the School, and I look forward to collaborating with him to further enhance SIPA’s standing as a leading center for research and education on global policy issues.”

“I'm excited to be taking on the job of vice dean,” Verhoogen said. “SIPA’s faculty are already world leaders in a number of important intellectual areas, and I look forward to continuing to broaden and deepen our faculty and building on our existing strengths.”

A leading scholar of development economics, labor economics, and international trade, Verhoogen joined the Columbia faculty in 2004 and became a tenured associate professor in 2010. He received the SIPA Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2007.

As the co-director (and former founding director) of the Center for Development Economics and Policy, Verhoogen helps lead the Center’s important research into poverty reduction, human capital, innovation, and conflict in developing nations.

Among his many activities outside of Columbia University, Verhoogen serves on the board of directors of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), the leading network of development economists, and is a research program director of the International Growth Centre, an international research consortium. From 2009 to 2013 Verhoogen was co-editor of the Journal of Development Economics, the top field journal in development.

Verhoogen holds a PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, an MA in economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and an AB in history and science from Harvard University.