Shivan GC
BIOGRAPHY
I come from the Himalayan country, Nepal, whose economic well-being is closely tied to its natural resources. The motivation to work for environmental conservation while addressing the need for forest products guided me to join an undergraduate program in forestry in my home country. I came to the US to garner wider knowledge in forestry and completed my master’s degree from the University of Arkansas at Monticello. The research focus during my master’s program was to understand the role of nonindustrial private forest landowners in wood-based bioenergy production in the United States. Since then, I have worked on several different projects related to wood-based bioenergy in Michigan. I am further interested to explore the potential economic and environmental impacts of emerging bioenergy industries at the local, regional and state levels. I am positive that the coursework I take during Ph.D. enrollment in forest resource economics will enrich my understanding in a policy-oriented perspective and help me address the interdependence between human economies and natural ecosystems. My research interests range from exploring economically feasible sites for energy plantations in Michigan through the application of GIS technology to assessing the availability of woody biomass from Michigan’s non-corporate private forests through contingent valuation as well as building input-output models for bioenergy industries in the State.