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Ching-Hsun Huang

Department Head and Professor; Ph.D. (Stephen F. Austin State University)
Dr. Ching-Hsun Huang
Sustainable Biomaterials
230 Cheatham Hall (0323)
310 West Campus Drive
Blacksburg, VA 24061

Dr. Huang is a natural resource economist and has conducted research projects in different regions of the United States.  Her research interests have included economically optimal forest management, enhancement of terrestrial carbon sinks and the effect of carbon revenues for loblolly pine plantations in the Southeast.  She has also performed economic valuation of forest fuels-reduction treatments, trade-off analysis for managing ecosystem services and quantified environmental and health benefits of using woody biomass for electricity generation in the Southwest.  Her recent research projects focused on the assessment of energy externalities, strategic application of wildland fire suppression, and social, health and economic impacts of wildland fire emissions.  She taught forest management and forest economics in the professional program at Northern Arizona University from 2007 to 2019.  She joined the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials in January 2020 as Department Head.

Area of Expertise

  • Economics of renewable energy
  • Forest ecosystem services
  • Carbon sequestration
  • Optimal forest management
  • Wildfire Economics 

Education

  • B.S. Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan, 1990
  • M.S. University of Houston-Clear Lake, 1993
  • Ph.D. Stephen F. Austin State University, 1999