Yuan Chai
Applied Economist
Expertise:
Agricultural productivity and innovation, agricultural risk management, bio-economic pest and disease modeling
BIO:
Yuan Chai served as an agricultural economist at the GEMS Informatics Center, University of Minnesota, from 2018 to 2025. He has since moved into a Data Science position in the private sector. Yuan received his MS degree in plant pathology and his PhD in applied economics, both at the University of Minnesota. As a plant pathologist, he studied rust resistance genetics in barley. As an agricultural economist, his research focuses on agricultural innovation, production, productivity, and the bio-economics of crop varietal change and production risk. He creates and applies fit-for-purpose bio-economic models to assess the consequences of and the strategies used by farmers in coping with production risks arising from climate- or pest-induced pressures on agriculture.