Dr. Ray Huffaker

Professor, Empirical Nonlinear Dynamics, Bioeconomic Modeling, Natural Resource and Environmental Law

Ray Huffaker is a natural resource economist (Ph.D., UC Davis) specializing in bioeconomic and hydrologic modeling, and a legal scholar (J.D., UC Davis) specializing in natural resource and environmental law.

Huffaker’s research specialty is to reconstruct the dynamics of real-world and experimental systems from observational data, map out and measure dynamic causal interactions in real-world networks, and distill physical models of real-world system dynamics from observed data with phenomenological modeling techniques and AI reservoir computing.  His research addresses sustainability issues in wide-ranging applications including renewable energy production, salt-water intrusion, water treatment in manmade wetlands and bioreactors, dynamics of red-algae blooms, and food security/safety. Huffaker’s research has further demonstrated how environmental and economic decision-support models can be evaluated for real-world correspondence.  Faulty model representations lead to ineffective and wasteful policies, triggering calls to review decision-support models used for public policy.  Huffaker has collaborated in research projects with colleagues in engineering, economics, and physics at universities throughout the US and EU, and conducted several week-long workshops on empirical nonlinear dynamic modeling.

Huffaker thoroughly enjoys working with students. His teaching experience includes doctoral courses in nonlinear data diagnostics, biological modeling and simulation, mathematical optimization techniques, economic dynamics, and micro- and macroeconomic analysis; and undergraduate courses in natural resource economics and environmental law.

Contact Information

rhuffaker@ufl.edu

Curriculum Vitae

352-294-6745

Office:
281 Frazier Rogers Hall

Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 110570
Gainesville, FL 32611-0570

• Teaching
  • ABE 6933: Data Diagnostics
  • ABE 5643C: Biological Systems Modeling
• Education
  • Ph.D. Agricultural Economics, University of California, Davis, 1983
  • J.D. University of California, Davis, School of Law, 1986
  • A.B. Economics and Italian, University of California, Davis, 1978
• Professional Experience
  • 2013-Present
    Professor, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Florida
  • 2008-2013
    Professor and Chair, Food and Resource Economics, University of Florida
  • 2000-2008
    Professor, School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University
  • 2006-2008
    Participating Faculty, Interdisciplinary Training of Undergraduates in Biological and Mathematical Sciences
  • 1993-2000
    Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Washington State University
  • 1990-1993
    Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Washington State University
  • 1990-2008
    Adjunct Professor, Department of Natural Resource Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman
  • 1990-2008
    Graduate Faculty, Environmental Science and Regional Planning Program, Washington State University
  • 1987-1990
    Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
  • 1984-1986
    Lecturer and Post-Doctoral Researcher, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of California, Davis
  • 1975-1978
    Parole Aid and Northern California Drug Abuse Coordinator, California Youth Authority
• Publications
  • Google Scholar
  • Research Gate
• Awards and Honors
  • Senior Visiting Fellowship, Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Bologna, Summer 2011
  • Computational Science Award in Undergraduate Teaching, Ames Laboratory, United States Department of Energy, 1994
  • Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, University of California, Davis
• Other Professional Activities
  • Editorial Board, Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research, 2009 - Present
  • Editorial Board, Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, 2010 - Present