Eric Bahel, associate professor of economics in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, has been named the Patricia Caldwell Faculty Fellow by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. 

The Patricia Caldwell Faculty Fellowship was established in 2019 by a donation from its namesake, Patricia Caldwell (’71), to enhance the national and international prominence of the College of Science. Caldwell, who earned her bachelor’s degree in mathematics, established this fellowship to recognize faculty dedicated to extraordinary research, to recruit scholars with exceptional records of achievement, or to retain high-performing faculty members in any discipline or transdisciplinary area within the college. A recipient will hold the fellowship for a period of three years with possible renewal.

A member of the Department of Economics since 2009, Bahel’s scholarship covers the field of game theory, where he proposes solutions for interactive decision-making, the field of social choice, where he designs collective choice mechanisms and voting rules, and the field of resource and environmental economics, where he works on the optimal development of alternative sources of energy and the mitigation of climate change through international environmental agreements. His research has practical implications for important problems facing societies today.

Bahel has published 18 peer-reviewed papers in high-impact journals with more than 35 professional presentations at national and international conferences. He has served on the program committee for professional conferences in Morocco and France.

His research has been supported with grants from Virginia Tech’s Institute for Society, Culture and Environment and the Global Forum on Urban and Regional Resilience. Bahel has received several awards from the Department of Economics, including the Outstanding Graduate Faculty of the Year, Outstanding Undergraduate Faculty of the Year, and Outstanding (Faculty) Service Award.

Bahel received his bachelor’s degree from ISSEA in Cameroon in 2002, a master’s degree from Université d’Auvergne in France in 2004, and a Ph.D. from Université de Montréal in Canada in 2009.

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