Dr. James Payne, Chair of the Department of Economics, has been selected to participate in the competitive Fulbright Senior Specialists Program and recently received a Fulbright Senior Specialist grant in Economics at the Institute of Economics in Zagreb, Croatia. The Fulbright Senior Specialist program is designed to provide short-term academic opportunities for U.S. faculty and professionals. Specifically, the shorter grant lengths provide specialists greater flexibility to pursue a grant that works best with their current academic or professional commitments. Non-U.S. post-secondary academic institutions from around the world can submit a request for a senior specialist to visit their institution.

“I knew selection to the roster was competitive and was pleasantly surprised to have made the cut,” said Payne. “This will make my third visit to Zagreb. My first visit was in 1987 as a graduate student at Florida State University as part of a team of researchers developing a macroeconometric model of the Yugoslav economy. However, the political unrest and war in the region delayed my second visit until 2000.” The University of Zagreb (1669) is the oldest and largest university in southeastern Europe. 

Payne received his Ph.D. in Economics from Florida State University in 1989. He joined the faculty at ISU as Chair of the Department of Economics in 2003. Prior to his appointment at ISU, Payne was a tenure-track faculty member at Oakland University (1989-1992) and Eastern Kentucky University (1992-2003) and was also a visiting professor at the University of Southern Mississippi, the Economics Institute, and the University of Kentucky. He has been a highly productive scholar with over 120 refereed journal articles and editorial board affiliations at a number of academic journals. In a study of the research productivity of more than 100,000 research economists worldwide compiled at the European Centre for Advance Research in in Economics and Statistics, Payne was ranked 116 on the basis of the number of publications from 1990 to 2000. “I congratulate Professor Payne on receiving this prestigious award,” said Dean Olson. “He is an excellent teacher and researcher.”