Emmanuel Akande is a 3rd year Ph.D. student in the Department of Food and Resource Economics (FRE). He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Economics from University of Lagos, Nigeria, in 2008 where he graduated at the top rank of his class. He obtained a Master of Arts (M.A) in Economics in 2012 from Florida State University (FSU). As a master’s student, he published a paper titled “The Investment Shock: Sources of Fluctuations in a Small Open Economy” and also worked as a researcher/project manager at the Florida State University Center for Economic and Forecasting Analysis (FSU-CEFA) for 2 years. His research interests in the Ph.D. program include applied econometrics, resource and environmental economics and production economics. These research interests relate to his professional goal of explaining the relationship between production activities and the preservation of our natural resources and environment.
In 2017, Emmanuel was nominated by his college to the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences’ (CALS) Council for Teaching Enhancement and Innovation. This council serves in an advisory capacity to the Dean of CALS on the topics and issues related to enhanced and innovative teaching. More importantly, the council provides recommendations to the Dean and IFAS Faculty Assembly. In 2016, Emmanuel was elected Mayor of Tanglewood village, a graduate housing community. In this role, he organized a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) symposium for children, among his other duties. This position also obligated him to reach out to graduate students of different cultures and nationalities. Emmanuel has been involved in leadership positions in many other organizations during his time at UF.
In the future, Emmanuel hopes to become part of the president’s economic team in Nigeria. As an office holder in that capacity, he will seek to embrace costless but reliable polices that would provide economic tools in resource development and sustainability.