Professor Andrew Sweeting Becomes ECON’s New Department Chair
Professor Andrew Sweeting has been named the new chair of the Department of Economics, a role he is excited to take on.
Sweeting received his Ph.D. in Economics from MIT and held appointments at Northwestern University and Duke University before coming to the University of Maryland in 2014. He is taking over from Professor Judith Hellerstein, who acted as chair since 2019.
“Andrew is going to be great; he’s an excellent scholar and researcher, teacher and Ph.D. advisor, and all of those things help to make an effective chair,” Hellerstein said. “In addition to taking numerous leadership roles in the college, Andrew has also worked at the Federal Trade Commission as the Director of the Bureau of Economics, and has been at other really excellent economics departments. That kind of experience is not necessary, but gives him a really helpful breadth.”
Sweeting’s pride in the department shows.
“What I like about UMD’s department is that there is a strong commitment to being a full-service, broad economics department that is covering a full range of topics that economists are interested in, from econometrics and theory to applied fields such as trade, education and policy-relevant macroeconomics,” he said. “There are lots of departments similarly ranked to UMD that are much more narrowly focused, and I think our breadth is a strength, particularly with our proximity to policymakers in Washington, D.C. Breadth and policy focus bring real benefits to students.”
Sweeting said his primary focus as chair will be building on recent success in hiring excellent junior faculty, as well as continuing to invest in existing programs and initiatives, such as the Promoting and Advancing Diversity in Economics (PADE) program.
“Given the demographics of our department today, there will be more opportunities to hire new junior faculty and renew ourselves with younger cohorts,” he said. “The department is at an important point in its evolution, and hiring junior scholars is one of the best ways to build the department for years to come.”
Sweeting is also focused on keeping the department’s Ph.D. program competitive—stipends for graduate students, especially those interested in studying economics, are trending up—and building on the success of the department’s Professional Masters program, reinforcing its reputation as the go-to program for professional economics training in the D.C. area.
He also wants to make sure undergraduates have a clear understanding of their options when choosing between the Department’s B.A. versus B.S. degrees. Increasing student-alumni engagement, especially in regard to career advice, is one way Sweeting hopes to address that latter issue. The Economics Leadership Council (ELC) started this process with the establishment of the department’s first mentoring program.
Increasing student-alumni engagement is just one part of Sweeting’s larger goal of increasing connections. This year, the department will start holding campus-wide events where faculty, staff, students, alumni and other economists on campus from the Robert H. Smith School of Business, Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics, and more can gather in person to hear from a distinguished speaker and discuss compelling research. Neil Moskowitz, ECON ’80, has generously provided funding to support this initiative.
“Going virtual for such a long period of time has created a bit more distance between faculty, and between students and faculty,” Sweeting said. “I think creating new events with broad involvement is critical for re-establishing connections.”
Photo by Tom Bacho.
Published on Tue, Jul 5, 2022 - 10:07AM