Modhurima Amin, an expert in applied econometrics, statistics and data science, has been named an assistant professor with Texas Tech University's Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, according to officials within the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. She officially steps into her new teaching and research post on Sept. 1.

Amin indicated that her research program broadly focuses on precision agriculture, food policy, and change points in high dimensional models. Her research combines models from structural econometrics, big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to help consumers and businesses make more informed and data-driven decisions.

She has been working with multidisciplinary teams from Purdue University and Washington State University to study food safety, access to healthy food, impact of technological innovations in agriculture, including releasing an improved crop variety. Amin's works also include energy economics, dairy farm management, and farmers' access to credit.

One of her primary goals here at Tech is to build quantitative analytics capacity in the department, including development of curriculum and research programs that integrate data science with traditional quantitative tools used in Agricultural and Applied Economics.

Amin's econometric papers have been selected by the American Economic Association for presentation at the prestigious Allied Social Science Association (ASSA) annual meeting in 2020 and 2021. This summer her doctoral dissertation won first place in graduate research competition 2020 organized by the CWAE and COSBAE committees of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA).

Prior to joining the Texas Tech faculty position, Amin served as an instructor, teaching assistant and graduate research assistant at Washington State University and Illinois State University. She taught courses on econometrics, corporate finance, microeconomics, and macroeconomics.

Currently, Amin works as an Agricultural Economist for Innov8Ag – a precision agriculture research company – partnered with Microsoft to enable growers to make on and off-farm management decisions based on machine learning and AI-based insights.

Amin received her bachelor's and master's degrees in economics from the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh. In addition, she was awarded a master's degree in applied financial economics from Illinois State University. Her master's degree in statistics and doctorate in economics are from Washington State University. Amin is a member of the American Economic Association, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, and the Western Agricultural Economics Association.

Tech's Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics currently has 17 tenured/tenure-track faculty members, three adjunct faculty members, 470 undergraduate students, and 73 graduate students. It offers bachelor's degrees in Agribusiness and Agricultural and Applied Economics, master's and doctorate degrees in Agricultural and Applied Economics, and a Masters of Agribusiness.

CONTACT: Phillip Johnson, chair and director of the Thornton Agricultural Finance Institute, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Texas Tech University at (806) 834-0474 or phil.johnson@ttu.edu

0818NM20

Editor's Note: A new online, video-orientated Red Raider Orientation is now available for our Fall 2020 incoming students. The microsite features a 'Meet the Deans' introduction, six CASNR department videos, three 'How To' videos, four 'Helpful Links' and a FAQ section.