Congratulations to David Zilberman, professor of the graduate school within the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, on being elected a 2025 fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and the publisher of the Science family of journals. Fellows are nominated by their peers and elected by the AAAS council in recognition of their distinguished work advancing science or its applications in society. Zilberman, a member of the UC Berkeley faculty since 1979, was selected for “introducing novel economic models to answer fundamental questions in agricultural, environmental, and resource economics, as well as for informing public policy on these issues.” He is among the latest cohort of 11 UC Berkeley faculty to earn the distinction.
As a Berkeley faculty member, Zilberman has built one of the most wide-ranging research programs in agricultural and resource economics, with work spanning water policy, the economics of innovation, biotechnology, bioenergy, climate change, agricultural supply chains, and the bioeconomy. He has authored more than 400 peer-reviewed journal articles—published in outlets ranging from Science to the Quarterly Journal of Economics—and edited 30 books. Zilberman’s economic models have shaped major policy debates, including the development of water markets in California, pesticide regulation, and the adoption of agricultural biotechnology worldwide.
Beyond his research, Zilberman has been a driving force behind international training and education programs at Berkeley. In 2001, he co-founded the Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program, which has trained 700 alumni from over 114 countries in environmental science, policy, and leadership. He is also the founding director of the Master of Development Practice program at Berkeley, and co-founded the International Consortium of Applied Bioeconomy Research (which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year). He has consulted for the US Environmental Protection Agency, the USDA, the World Bank, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, among other organizations.
The AAAS fellowship is the latest in a long line of recognitions for Zilberman. He received the 2019 Wolf Prize in Agriculture, often referred to as the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in agriculture, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences that same year. Zilberman is a past president of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) and a fellow of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists and other professional organizations.
New fellows will be honored on May 29 in Washington, DC. The distinction, which many consider a lifetime honor, will be accompanied by a certificate and a gold-and-blue rosette pin representing science and engineering.
Learn more about the Fellows program on the AAAS website.
