Tom Harris, a professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Nevada, Reno's College of Business and the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology, and Natural Resources, was selected to be a Western Agricultural Economics Association Fellow, the highest recognition that the association grants.

The WAEA is a non-profit corporation that consists of professional economists from academic and government institutions, private industry and agribusiness, and non-governmental organizations. The goals of the WAEA consist of promoting the study of agricultural economics, specifically in the western United States and Canada, as well as focusing, overall, on the growth and impact of agricultural economics. The WAEA Fellows Award is given to members that have made outstanding contributions to agricultural or environmental economics both in the Western U.S. and the WAEA.

Harris has been with the WAEA since he was a graduate student at Oklahoma State University. Over the course of his distinguished career, he has focused on various agricultural economic issues, specifically in the West, which includes helping the process of developing and maintaining agricultural economics for public lands and rural communities.

Currently, Harris and his fellow WAEA associates are collecting data and analysis on public land issues as well as utilizing a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to work on the Area Sector Analysis Process. His aim with ASAP is to help rural areas develop procedures for economic development that meets the local demand while also supporting sustainable growth.

"It's an honor to be chosen for the WAEA Fellows Award," Harris said, "I look forward to a continued relationship with all of the members to expand on their work, focusing on the issues of growth and natural resource consumption here in the west."