Faculty Scholarship

DR. KENNETH D. TOWNSEND, ELLIOTT PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS

ELLIOT PROFESSOR of Economics Kenneth D. Townsend in the fall of 2005 presented “The Economic Effects of Hurricane Katrina: ‘Un-Development,’ Tipping Points for Fiscal Federalism, and Speculation in Harm” to the Real-Estate Section of the Richmond Bar Association.

Townsend helped to organize the College-wide symposium on “Energy and the Public Interest: Reflections on a National Energy Strategy for the Twenty-First Century” and served as chair for two of the symposium sessions. At the opening session of the symposium, he presented a talk on the “Nature of the Energy Problem in the United States at the Beginning of the 21st Century.”

Townsend has also been involved in supervising research by Bikash Acharya ’08 and Achhunna N. Mali ’08. Townsend has been collaborating with Acharya, a double-major in physics and economics, on the topic of entropy and economics, the application of thermodynamics to problems of sustainable economic growth; and with Mali on the construction of an annual econometric forecasting model of Nepal, the home country of both students.

Recently Townsend has been working on the matter of the proper distinction between environmental studies and environmental science. In the summer he participated in a panel on the topic at the Second Summit on the Environment, which took place at Syracuse University and the State University of New York School of Environmental Studies.

Townsend developed a successful grant proposal to the Jessie Ball duPont Fund to develop a faculty workshop on the status of the environmental studies program at Hampden-Sydney College and on a consideration of the creation of a steering body for the program that would consider new courses, assess the program, and work toward a more coherent curriculum. He served as chair of the two-day workshop that brought three outside experts from Birmingham Southern College, Furman University, and the University of the South to campus to speak to fifteen faculty members representing ten departments and academic programs.

In addition, he has worked with Associate Professor of Economics Justin P. Isaacs ’95 on several private consulting projects.

Townsend holds the B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees, all from Louisiana State University, and has taught at the College since 1980. He was promoted to the rank of professor in 1993, and will be on leave during the spring semester. At Commencement in 2006 Townsend received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Medallion, given annually by the New York Southern Society “to friends of the College who have been conspicuously helpful to and associated with the institution in its effort to encourage and preserve a high standard of morals.”