Weizhe Weng
Assistant Professor
Dr. Weng is an assistant professor in the Food & Resource Economics Department at the University of Florida. She holds a research and extension appointment and specializes in environmental and natural resource economics, valuation of ecosystem services, and water policy.
Dr. Weng holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Virginia Tech. Before joining the University of Florida, Weng was an assistant professor at SUNY Geneseo. While there, she received the Presidential Summer Fellowship and was honored as the Class of 2020 and 2022 Student-Athletes Honored Professor.
Dr. Weng’s research program emphasizes the innovative use of economic and interdisciplinary frameworks to quantify the interactions between human and natural systems, evaluate potential policy outcomes, and provide a foundation to support science-based policymaking. Using various modern empirical, optimization, and integrated assessment modeling methods, her research explores policy questions related to water pollution, air pollution, land use, agricultural production, and outdoor recreation.
She has studied topics such as the economic value of water quality changes, the co-benefits of water policies, the human-freshwater interactions in lake catchments, the relationship between air pollution and cognitive performance, the impact of COVID-19 on visitation to public recreational parks, climate change impacts on irrigation agriculture, and the use of data visualizations to promote best waterfront management practices.
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Research
Dr. Weng's research interests are Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, Applied Econometrics, Non-market Valuation, Water Policy, Coupled Natural and Human Systems.
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Extension
My goals for extension are centered around water resources in Florida and involve effectively increasing awareness and knowledge of the social value of water, efficient water use, conservation practices, water district management, and environmental stewardship. I plan to provide trainings to stakeholders through workshops, seminars, webinars, publication of extension factsheets and reports, technical bulletins, infographics, etc.
My current extension projects involve estimating the economic values of Florida’s water resources, building a cost-effective nutrient management program, taking a science-based approach to guide actions to transform agri-food systems towards green and climate resilient practices.
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Teaching
Dr. Weng is not teaching any classes at this time.
Contact
1095 McCarty Hall A
352-294-1752
wweng@ufl.edu
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Education
- Ph.D. in Economics, Virginia Tech July 2019
- M.S. in Economics, Jinan University June 2014
- B.S. in Economics (with Honors), Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics July 2011
- B.A. in English Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, July 2011
- Publications