Via the department’s Facebook page, Purdue Agricultural Economics announced that Professor Dr. Wallace (Wally) Tyner passed away on Sunday. The post read, “Today we were saddened by the news of Dr. Wally Tyner’s passing. His contributions to the agricultural economics field made impacts across the globe. He will be sorely missed as a colleague, mentor, leader, and friend.”
Professor Tyner’s recent research interests were in the area of climate, energy, agricultural, and natural resource policy analysis. His work in energy economics has encompassed oil, natural gas, coal, oil shale, biomass, biofuels from agricultural sources, and solar and wind energy. Much of his recent work focused on economic and policy analysis for biofuels and the interplay between biofuels policies and other energy policies. He has over 330 professional papers including three books and 115+ journal papers, published abstracts, and book chapters. His work has been cited over 5,700 times according to Google Scholar. He was Co-chair of the National Academy of Science Committee on the Economic and Environmental Impacts of Biofuels (2011). In 2016, he chaired a National Academy panel on advanced biofuels.
In 2007 Tyner received the “Energy Patriot Award” from Senator Richard Lugar. In 2009, he was named the Outstanding Graduate Educator in the College of Agriculture. Tyner was the recipient of the Purdue University Morrill Award and named an Honorary Life Member of the International Association of Agricultural Economics in 2015. In 2016 he was named an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow and in 2018 he was added to the Purdue Book of Great Teachers.