BIOGRAPHY
YU Chengzheng obtained his Ph.D. in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in August 2023. Previously, he obtained his B.S. in Mathematics and Economics (double-major) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 2017 and M.A. in Applied Economics from Georgetown University in August 2018. Dr. Yu’s research interests include Environmental and Resource Economics, Computational Economics, Agriculture Sustainability, and relative interdisciplinary fields.
Education: Ph.D. in Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, August 2023
M.A. in Applied Economics, Georgetown University, August 2018
B.S. in Mathematics (with High Distinction) and Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, May 2017
RESEARCH
Publications:
Khanna, M., Atallah, S., Kar, S., Sharma, B., Wu, L., Yu, C., Chowdhary, G., Soman, C., & Guan, K. (2022). Digital transformation for a sustainable agriculture in the United States: Opportunities and challenges. Agricultural Economics , 1-14.
Yu, C., Miao, R., & Khanna, M. (2021). Maladaptation of U.S. corn and soybeans to a changing climate. Scientific Reports, 11 , 12351.
Contreras, I., Toriyama, M., & Yu, C. (2020). Gluing of graph Laplacians and their spectra. Linear and Multilinear Algebra, 68 (4), 710-749.
Conference Papers:
The Midwest Economics Association 87th Annual Meetings, Cleveland, OH, USA. "Owning robots or hiring services for weed management? Bioeconomic and behavioral drivers" (discussant), Mar 2023.
The Eastern Economic Association 49th Annual Conference, New York, NY, USA. "Owning robots or hiring services for weed management? Bioeconomic and behavioral drivers", Feb 2023.
The Southern Economic Association 92nd Annual Meeting, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA. "Bioeconomic and behavioral incentives for robotic weed control in row crop agriculture" (session chair), Nov 2022.
2022 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) Annual Meeting, Anaheim, CA, USA. "Bioeconomic and behavioral incentives for robotic weed control in row crop agriculture", "Early Career Professional Travel Award" winner, Aug 2022.
2021 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) \& Western Agricultural Economics Association (WAEA) Joint Annual Meeting, Austin, TX, USA. "Maladaptation of U.S. corn and soybeans to a changing climate" (session moderator), Aug 2021.
The Eastern Economic Association 47th Annual Conference, New York, NY, USA (virtual). "Maladaptation of U.S. corn and soybeans to a changing climate" (discussant), Feb 2021.
Invited Presentations:
The Association of Private Enterprise Education 47th Meeting, Cancun, Mexico. "Owning robots or hiring services for weed management? Bioeconomic and behavioral drivers", Apr 2023.
31st International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE), New Delhi, India (virtual). "Maladaptation of U.S. corn and soybeans to a changing climate", Aug 2021.
Research grants:
National Institute of Food and Agriculture, US Department of Agriculture: I-WEED Integrated Weed Ecological and Economic Dynamics (Mar 2022 - Feb 2025, $649,834)
