David Letson has been elected chair of the Division of Marine Affairs and Policy at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
Letson, who has been with the school for 14 years, is a professor and member of the Council of Economic Advisors for Florida TaxWatch.
He also participates in a multidisciplinary evaluation of forecasting for agricultural and water resources management in the southeastern United States and Argentina as part of the Southeastern Climate Consortium.
Letson will chair the division that undertakes basic and applied research and training activities to help develop policy and management of marine resources.
Letson's research at UM's Rosenstiel School focuses on natural resource economics, particularly on extreme weather and climate variations.
As an economist, he is interested in the value of hurricane forecasts and how forecasts are interpreted.
In one research project, he is helping develop an Internet-based survey to estimate the economic value of hurricane forecast attributes.In another project, Letson helped create an electronic futures market to better understand how hurricane forecasts are interpreted.
(Miami Herald Staff Report)
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