**About the Editors**

**Bruce A. McCarl** MCCARL is a University Distinguished Professor, Presidential Impact Fellow, Regents Professor, Senior AgriLife Research Fellow and Professor of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M. Dr. McCarl joined Texas A&M in 1985, having previously worked at Oregon State and Purdue. He earned a B.S. in Business Statistics from the University of Colorado and a Ph.D. in Management Science from Pennsylvania State University. His areas of interest are the economic implications of the food–energy–water nexus; global climate change and greenhouse gas emission reduction; forestry and agricultural policy design; biofuels; mathematical programming, and risk analysis. He is the author of 296 journal articles and over 500 other papers and presentations. He has been involved sponsored research amounting to over \$82 million. He is a Fellow of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association and a Fellow of both the Western and Southern Agricultural Economics Associations. He was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that was co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

**Anastasia W. Thayer** is an agricultural economist with a focus on natural resources. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Economics at Utah State University. Her previous projects cover the topics of climate change impacts in agriculture, water use in agriculture, and the ways in which water markets can change water allocation among user groups. She received her PhD in Agricultural Economics from Texas A&M University and her M.S. in Resource Economics from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

**Thomas Lacher** is a Full Professor in Ecology and Conservation Biology at Texas A&M University and Director of the Center for Coffee Research and Education at the Borlaug Institute. He has held positions at the University of Brasilia, Brazil, Western Washington University, and Clemson University, where he was the executive director of the research consortium of the Archbold Tropical Research Center. From 2002 to 2007, he was Senior Vice-President and Executive Director of the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science at Conservation International, leading projects focused on conservation and sustainable development around the globe. At Texas A&M University, he was Professor and Caesar Kleberg Chair in Wildlife Ecology in the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences (1996–2002) and was also Head of the Department from 2007 to 2011. Dr. Lacher has been working in the tropics for over 40 years, with field research experience in Dominica, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, Peru, and Brazil. From 2013 to 2017, he was co-PI on USAID/Uganda Environmental Management for the Oil Sector SOL-617-12-000026. He is an Associate Conservation Scientist at the Global Wildlife Conservation and is a member of the IUCN Climate Change Specialist Group, Co-Chair of the IUCN Small Mammal Specialist Group, and he serves on the IUCN Red List Committee.

**Aurora M Vargas** is an agricultural economist with an interest in data science and the analysis of diverse data sets. She received her B.S. in Animal Science from Louisiana State University and her Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Texas A&M University. Throughout her doctoral program, she researched food–water–energy nexus goals and established alternative strategies for improved management. Her publications can be found in the Climate and Energy Proceedings journals. Currently, Dr. Vargas is working as a quantitative analyst consultant focused on the correct implementation of data and modelling towards determining the individual outcomes of the United States horse racing industry
