Archive for Announcement – Page 2

SIPA welcomes Eric Verhoogen as vice dean

Position is responsible for faculty recruitment and faculty development

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.

Closed for the storm

snow_emergency

Snowmageddon 2015 is making its way to Columbia University, and Alma is ready for it. However, the rest of us aren’t 10 feet tall and made of bronze. Thus, SIPA’s Office of Admissions and Financial Aid is closed at 3 p.m. on Monday, January 26, and all day on Tuesday, January 27. We  expect to resume normal operations on Wednesday, January 28.

Read More →

We’re closed for MLK Day

(Photo courtesy of FIUTS.org)

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?'” —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

To answer that question, each year communities come together on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday to serve their neighbors and cities. Monday, January 19, 2015 will mark the 21st year of the MLK Day of Service, which takes place on the third Monday in January. It’s the only federal holiday observed as a national day of service. MLK Day is a part of United We Serve, the President’s national call to service initiative, according to NationalService.gov.

Together we can help create a global community of service. In 2014, MLK Day inspired participants to help 38,000 veterans, military families and service members receive assistance, 360,000 people receive emergency food, and 58,000 children receive tutoring and mentorship services. Hopefully, our global communities will make those figures balloon this year!

If you’re interested in joining Seeple and other volunteers across the country at volunteer opportunities, visit the National Service website and enter your location under “Find a Volunteer Opportunity.” For those of you in the NYC area, there are several events taking place on Monday, including stocking bookshelves at a Washington Heights bookshop, helping a New Jersey group pack medical supplies for under-served populations, and assisting AmeriCorps members with teaching financial literacy in the East Village. Plus, you just might run into a SIPA alumn! After all, we’re pretty big on helping the world become a better place, near and far.

While you’re volunteering, don’t forget: Since MLK Day of Service is a national holiday, Columbia University and SIPA will be closed on Monday, January 19, 2015. 

January 5 Deadline Reminder

Cartoon by Doug Savage

Just a friendly reminder that the MIA/MPA applications are due today, January 5, 2015 at 11:59 p.m. EST. Please submit your completed application by tonight if you want to be considered for SIPA’s merit-based fellowships. (The final application deadlines—without fellowships consideration—is February 5, 2015.)

If you have some questions regarding your application, please review last week’s blog post, where our admissions staff answered some of your most urgent questions.

Unsure of when the deadline is in your part of the world? This chart may help:

New York, New York  January 5, 2015 11:59 PM
Los Angeles, California January 5, 2015 8:59 PM
Mexico City, Mexico January 5, 2015 10:59 PM
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil January 6, 2015 2:59 AM
London, England January 6, 2015 4:59 AM
Madrid, Spain January 6, 2015 5:59 AM
Beijing, China January 6, 2015 12:59 PM
Tokyo, Japan January 6, 2015 1:59 PM

 

Good luck everyone!

"The most global public policy school, where an international community of students and faculty address world challenges."

—Merit E. Janow, Dean, SIPA, Professor of Practice, International and Economic Law and International Affairs

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