Professor Emilson Silva
In 2023 Professor Emilson Silva was appointed Director of the Energy Centre. Additionally Professor Emilson Silva holds the position of Chair in Energy Economics, in the Economics Department at the University of Auckland Business School.
A passion for solving economic, behavioural, puzzles is the motto that drives Professor Silva to strive for excellence in economics’ research, teaching and outreach activities. Professor Silva’s successful career, spanning thirty years of academic and administrative experience, is an important enabling asset for the challenges that the positions of Director of the Energy Centre and Chair in Energy Economics present in taking the Energy Centre to a dominant, central, position in energy economic policy in New Zealand. Professor Silva comes to the University of Auckland after spending nearly twelve years at the University of Alberta, where he held the Campus Alberta Innovation Program Chair in the areas of Energy and Environmental Economics at the Alberta School of Business from 2012 to 2019, and Department Head from 2018 to 2021, among other administrative positions.
Prior to working at the University of Alberta, Professor Silva was the Graduate Director at the School of Economics, Georgia Institute of Technology, where he effectively designed and implemented the PhD in Economics at the School of Economics, from 2006 to 2012. Previously, he worked at Tulane University, where he held the position of Department Head from 2005 to 2006, a challenging period characterized by the catastrophic Katrina hurricane, and the position of Graduate Director from 1999 to 2005.
Professor Silva started his career at the University of Oregon, where he worked from 1993 to 1999. His PhD in Economics is from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, obtained in 1993. Professor Silva has published in top journals in Economics, including the Journal of Political Economy, the Economic Journal, the European Economic Review, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management and, more recently, the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.