Shadi Atallah Integrates Biology and Economics to Advance Sustainable Agriculture
Celebrating 10 Under 10 honoree Shadi Atallah, PhD 2014
Shadi Atallah, PhD ’14, associate professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (photo credit: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
A teacher, mentor, academic leader, and scientific advisor deeply committed to identifying and advancing solutions for sustainable and resilient agriculture, Shadi Atallah, PhD ’14, a graduate of the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management who earned his PhD in agricultural and resource economics, is one of the 2024 10 Under 10 Notable Alumni honored by the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.
Atallah is an associate professor of agricultural and consumer economics and an associate director of the Center for the Economics of Sustainability at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research program generates recommendations to growers, landowners, and resource managers to manage their crops and natural resources in a way that balances economic and ecological objectives and constraints. His research interests include natural resource economics, bioeconomics, ecosystem services, and sustainable agriculture and food systems.
Prior to joining the University of Illinois, Atallah was assistant professor at the University of New Hampshire, 2015-20, and before that, he was an assistant professor at Purdue University. He holds an engineering degree in agricultural sciences from The Holy Spirit University of Kaslik in Lebanon, an MS in plant science from the American University of Beirut, and an MS in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California, Davis, in addition to his Cornell University PhD.
Atallah hails from Lebanon and now calls Urbana, Illinois home. Learn more about him in this Q&A.
Integrating economic and biological dynamics for a sustainable and resilient agriculture
What drives your commitment and focus in your professional career?
Atallah: The factors that drive my commitment are the pressing issues I work to solve, the people affected by these issues, and the pressing need to work across disciplinary lines to achieve innovations for a sustainable and resilient agriculture. These are the type of solutions that would not be possible to identify through the lens of only one discipline. In sum, it’s about the people and the planet. I want to find solutions to problems in agricultural production that make economic sense, are environmentally sound, socially acceptable, and take advantage of the technological revolutions that have affected agriculture.
The multiplier effect
What inspires you to dedicate your time and energy to share your expertise broadly and work with students, colleagues, and stakeholders to identify and promote sustainable and resilient agriculture?
Atallah: I cannot solve global issues alone. I think I can best impact the world and help discover and assess solutions for sustainable and resilient agriculture by complementing my institutional role that involves teaching undergraduate students, training graduate students, and engaging with stakeholders, with more far-reaching opportunities. Within my institution and state, I serve by taking on leadership roles in my department, scientific advisory roles in conservation organizations in my state, and editorial roles in my profession. In addition to working in large research teams in my institution and peer institutions, I take on mentorship roles with junior and senior colleagues at less-resourced institutions nationally and globally and with junior colleagues from other disciplines who want to learn about social science research to engage in interdisciplinary investigations. I hope that by expanding my training efforts outside my institution and discipline, I can have larger, farther, and longer-lasting multiplier effects.
A Cornellian for life
What drives your continued engagement with and contribution to the Cornell community?
Atallah: I feel like I have not really left Cornell. I continue to work and coauthor with graduate students, postdocs, and faculty members at Cornell from multiple disciplines. I think what drives this is the desire to pay back and never let my positive experience at Cornell end.
What does being selected for the 10 Under 10 Notable Alumni list mean to you?
Atallah: It means a lot. It strengthens my commitment to the issues I work on and the way I approach them, which was made possible by Cornell’s intellectually free, boundaryless, and vibrant learning and research environment. I hope it also means to my fellow Cornellians that working on agricultural sustainability issues in interdisciplinary ways is important!
What are the most valuable things you learned at Cornell that have helped you in your career?
Atallah: The imperative of conducting interdisciplinary research to solve sustainability issues. Solving sustainability issues at the intersection of agriculture and the environment inherently involves innovative solutions that can be learned from multiple disciplines. At Cornell, throughout my PhD dissertation research and coursework in multiple departments—such as the School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, and Operations Research and Information Engineering at Cornell Engineering—thinking across disciplinary boundaries came naturally. This was made easier thanks to the offering of courses across disciplines and the work of my advisor and his collaborators, which is applied and interdisciplinary in nature.
Did any particular faculty or staff member(s) influence you on your chosen career path?
Atallah: My PhD advisor, Miguel I. Gomez [Robert G. Tobin Food Marketing Professor and faculty director of the Food Industry Management Program at the Dyson School]. While my training in agricultural science and MS in plant science was often seen as a barrier or irrelevant to excellence in agricultural and resource economics, Miguel saw it as an asset and encouraged me to lean on my previous training and experience to find economic solutions to issues such as disease and pest management in agriculture, which is the area I keep working in. Many awesome people who were working with Miguel, such as Marc Fuchs [professor in Cornell’s School of Integrative Plant Science] and Tim Martinson [senior extension associate (retired), the School of Integrative Plant Science], were instrumental in the positive experience we had while working on the economics of the grapevine leafroll disease in New York and California.
Describe a challenge you encountered as you built your career and how you overcame it.
Atallah: One challenge was to do interdisciplinary research at the intersection of the economic and biological sciences that uses computational methods while making it appreciated in mainstream agricultural and resource economics. It took a lot of translating across disciplinary languages and theories. I can’t say it’s a challenge that I have overcome once and for all. I think it’s one that needs to be overcome in each research project. But that’s understandable; it’s part of having decided to locate my research program at the intersection of multiple disciplines. It’s more challenging, but it’s also more rewarding for me, given my training in both disciplines and the opportunity and urgency I see to work across these disciplinary lines if we want to solve real problems that emerge at these boundaries.
What is the proudest moment of your career or of your personal life?
Atallah: The proudest moment was when my wife, Catalina Herrera Almanza, PhD ’14, and I graduated and walked together during the Cornell PhD hooding ceremony in 2014 and having our families, from two continents, be there to celebrate that moment with us and to meet one another! It was not only a proud moment, but also one full of optimism over what we could do to study solutions to sustainability and resilience issues. While I focus on agriculture and natural resources in the U.S. context, she is an expert in the economics of demographic, education, and health issues in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. It felt like we were leaving Cornell equipped with all that was needed to make a difference through investments in both natural and human capital.
Another moment where I was very proud was when my graduate student successfully defended her thesis and graduated, despite all the social and historical disadvantages that she inherited. Seeing how proud she and her family were made me very proud, especially with the likely inspiration her achievement will have on others who identify with her.
What do you do to recharge?
Atallah: I recharge by spending time with my wife and kids here and reconnecting with family and friends in Lebanon and elsewhere. Both social gatherings with friends and connections with nature help me recharge. Eating good Lebanese food has an instant recharging effect!
What do you wish you’d known as a student and what advice would you give to students today?
Atallah: At the beginning of grad school, a five-year PhD program felt too long. I wish I’d known how limited it actually is for all the learning available at a place like Cornell, which simultaneously combines the unique benefits of being a land-grant university and an Ivy League institution. I also wish I’d known how rare it will be after grad school to have the amount of focus that one can afford as a grad student at Cornell. And I wish I had known the value of spending a bit more time outside of my home department, interacting with people from other units working on very different societal and environmental issues.