Research, education, and policy impact at the University of Rhode Island, 1950–2026

URI’s Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics began in 1950 as a small program in agricultural economics, studying land use and Rhode Island’s dairy, poultry, and fishing industries. Two decades later, in the Sea Grant era, it launched the nation’s first PhD program dedicated to resource economics, and helped make URI one of the first four Sea Grant Colleges in the country.

Since then, ENRE faculty have developed the federal approach to valuing damages from oil and chemical spills, advised the EPA and the National Academies, founded the leading international journal in fisheries economics, and trained graduates who now work in academia, government, and industry around the world.

1st	445+	30+
PhD program dedicated to resource economics (1969)	M.S. and PhD degrees granted	Countries represented by our graduates

Celebrating 75 years together

In October 2026, 108 graduates, faculty, students, staff, and friends of ENRE gathered in Kingston to celebrate the department’s 75th anniversary and graduate reunion. That included 52 alumni from 13 states, as well as guests traveling from as far as Indonesia, Japan, and France.

Firsts and national recognition

Pioneering programs

• 1969: Launched the first PhD program dedicated to the study of resource economics.
• 1971: Helped URI become one of the nation’s first four Sea Grant Colleges. Department chair Niels Rorholm directed the Rhode Island Sea Grant College Program from 1971 to 1984.
• 1972: The USAID-funded International Center for Marine Resource Development began bringing students from developing countries to URI. For decades, at least half of ENRE’s graduate students came from abroad, making it arguably the most internationally diverse program at URI.
• 1982: Founded Marine Resource Economics, now published by the University of Chicago Press and widely regarded as the leading international journal in fisheries and coastal economics.
• 2001: Opened the Experimental Economics and Policy Simulation Laboratory (SimLab).
• 2020: Launched an Accelerated Bachelor’s–Master’s program, one of the first of its kind in the college.

Rankings and honors

• No. 2 Best College for Natural Resource Economics in the U.S., College Raptor (2026)
• No. 6 PhD program in the country (No. 4 in research), National Research Council (2010)
• No. 8 among the “Best Places to Go to Graduate School” in the field (2008)
• No. 4 in research productivity among agricultural and resource economics programs (2007)
• Students have earned five AAEA Outstanding Thesis Awards and seven Knauss Fellowships.

ENRE today

All three ENRE degrees (BS, MS and PhD) are now designated STEM. The BS qualifies for New England regional tuition, and a Graduate Certificate in Econometrics and Data Analysis welcomed its first cohort in 2024.

Exlore our programs

Research that shaped policy

For 75 years, ENRE research hasn’t stayed in journals. It has been written into federal regulation, informed national decisions on offshore drilling, and guided how Rhode Island and New England manage fisheries, coastlines and energy.

Valuing damage from oil and chemical spills

Professors James Opaluch and Thomas Grigalunas developed the approach adopted in federal regulations for assessing natural-resource damages from spills of oil and hazardous substances. Opaluch went on to serve as an expert on roughly two dozen spills, including the Exxon Valdez and BP spills and both of Rhode Island’s major spills, the World Prodigy (1989) and the North Cape (1996).

Offshore oil leasing

Opaluch and Grigalunas helped develop analyses used in the federal five-year offshore oil leasing plan for 1987–92. Opaluch also served on a National Research Council panel assessing whether environmental information was adequate for Outer Continental Shelf leasing decisions. President George H. W. Bush cited the panel’s conclusions in placing a moratorium on OCS leasing until those gaps were filled.

A global center for fisheries economics

Beginning in the late 1960s, Virgil Norton, John Gates, Andreas Holmsen, Jon Sutinen and others made URI a leading center for the economics of fisheries management, from bioeconomic analysis to compliance, regulation and co-management. James L. Anderson’s work on seafood marketing, trade and aquaculture shaped understanding of global seafood markets. Cathy Roheim pioneered research on seafood eco-labels, linking consumer markets to sustainable fisheries. Today Hiro Uchida carries the legacy forward, using experiments to study consumer behavior and new ways for fishermen to add value.

Valuing nature and land

Kenneth (Ted) McConnell’s work on the economics of recreation advanced the methods economists use to measure non-market environmental values. Timothy Tyrrell brought economic analysis to marine tourism. Stephen Swallow’s work on land use, including research with Robert Johnston (’97), informed conservation and development policy at the rural–urban fringe. Corey Lang studies how communities value land, who benefits from conservation, and how offshore energy development affects rental prices.

Water, coasts, energy and data

Emi Uchida works at the nexus of environment and development, from coastal wetland conservation to climate risk and the effects of water salinization on coastal communities; in 2024 she was named a Pew Marine Fellow for her research on mangrove and seagrass conservation in Indonesia. Todd Guilfoos studies groundwater, nonpoint source pollution and how people cooperate to manage shared resources. Pengfei Liu (MS ’11) and Hui Zhou apply large-scale data and causal inference to questions ranging from agricultural water pollution to the economic and environmental impact of data centers.

Advising the nation and the region

• U.S. EPA: Opaluch served two terms on the EPA Science Advisory Board and co-chaired its Environmental Economics Advisory Committee; Swallow also served on that committee (2013–16).
• The National Academies: Faculty served on National Research Council panels on offshore oil, PCB remediation, marine aquaculture and non-native oysters; Jon Sutinen joined the NRC Ocean Studies Board in 2001.
• New England Fishery Management Council: Hiro Uchida serves on its Scientific and Statistical Committee (2018–) and helped establish its Social Science Subcommittee (2025–).
• Rhode Island: ENRE expertise informed the Legislative Commission on Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding, the RI Aquaculture Commission, the RI Seafood Marketing Collaborative, and renewable energy siting.

Leading the profession

ENRE faculty have led professional societies at every level, including the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET), whose presidents have included Cathy Roheim and Hiro Uchida; the North American Association of Fisheries Economists, whose first president was Jon Sutinen; the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists; and the Northeast Agricultural and Resource Economics Association. Faculty have served as editors of the field’s flagship journals, including the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management and the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.

Read more impacts and milestones

A home built against the odds

In the late 1980s, ENRE was working out of a deteriorating building with a failing heating system. Then a USDA program officer, visiting on a fisheries grant, mentioned a federal program that funded buildings devoted to research.

Professor Thomas Weaver, then department chair, took the idea from concept to reality. After USDA selected the proposal, he worked with Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation to secure funding across several fiscal years, as the building was dropped from the Congressional bill and restored again and again. Final approval of a $12 million USDA facilities grant came in 1995, more than a decade after the idea was born.

Weaver died suddenly on April 1, 1996, just months later. The department carried his project through an architecture firm’s bankruptcy, a second round of construction bids, and a near-rescission by USDA, saved by a trip to Washington. ENRE moved into the Coastal Institute in 2001. Its auditorium is dedicated in Tom Weaver’s memory.

Milestones, 1950–2026

1950–1967: The formative years

• 1950: The Department of Agricultural Economics offers undergraduate and MS programs.
• 1954: First MS degree conferred, to Robert Martin, for a thesis on forage use on dairy farms.
• 1965: Renamed the Department of Food & Resource Economics.

1968–1980: The Sea Grant era

• 1969: Renamed the Department of Resource Economics; launches the nation’s first PhD program dedicated to resource economics.
• 1971: URI becomes one of the first four Sea Grant Colleges in the nation.
• 1972: First PhD conferred, to Christopher Newton. The USAID-funded International Center for Marine Resource Development begins supporting students from developing countries.
• 1976: Nancy Bockstael becomes the first woman to earn a PhD in the program.

1981–1991: Broadening the agenda

New faculty expanded the department beyond fisheries into water quality, land use, pollution, tourism, aquaculture and international trade.

• 1982: Jon Sutinen founds the journal Marine Resource Economics.
• 1989: Resource Economics and Commerce undergraduate major established.

1992–2000: Building for the future

• 1995: Renamed the Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics (ENRE). Final approval of the $12 million USDA grant for the Coastal Institute.
• 1997: Environmental Economics and Management major established with Natural Resource Science.

2001–2010: A new home and national rankings

• 2001: ENRE moves from Lippitt Hall to the new Coastal Institute; SimLab opens. By now the department has granted more than 200 MS and 100 PhD degrees.
• 2007: Ranked No. 4 nationally for research productivity.
• 2010: National Research Council ranks the ENRE PhD No. 6 in the country.

2011–2026: Renewal and new directions

New faculty brought expertise in energy, water, agricultural and data-driven economics.

• 2012: Green Business double major launched with the College of Business.
• 2013: Undergraduate majors reach 100, up from 8 in 2003.
• 2017: Undergraduate Certificate in Energy Economics and Policy approved.
• 2019: James Opaluch retires after more than 40 years; alum Pengfei Liu (MS ’11) joins the faculty.
• 2020: First cohort of the Accelerated Bachelor’s–Master’s program.
• 2024: First cohort of the Graduate Certificate in Econometrics and Data Analysis.
• 2025: All ENRE degrees designated STEM; BS approved for New England regional tuition.
• 2026: ENRE celebrates its 75th Anniversary & Graduate Reunion and is ranked No. 2 for natural resource economics by College Raptor.

Department chairs since 1950

Chair	Years	Notes
Fred Taylor	1950–1956	First chair, Department of Agricultural Economics
Niels Rorholm	1956–1972	Longest-serving chair; directed the RI Sea Grant College Program, 1971–84
Ronald Cummings	1972–1976
Darrel Hueth	1976–1978
Thomas Grigalunas	1978–1983
Thomas Weaver	1983–1996	Led the effort to build the Coastal Institute
John Gates	1996–1997	Interim chair following Weaver’s death
Cathy Roheim (formerly Wessells)	1997–2001	First woman to chair the department; led the move into the Coastal Institute
James L. Anderson	2001–2009
James Opaluch	2009–2018	Expanded the undergraduate program, including the double degree with Business and the Certificate in Energy Economics and Policy
Hirotsugu (Hiro) Uchida	2018–2023	Launched the Accelerated BS–MS program
Emi Uchida	2023–2026	Secured STEM designation for all degrees and regional tuition for the BS; created the Graduate Certificate in Econometrics and Data Analysis
Corey Lang	2026–present

Be part of the next 75 years

Whether you studied here in the 1970s or graduated last spring, you’re part of this story. Stay in touch, share your news, and help support the next generation of ENRE students

Make a gift