News and Announcements

Alaska's state government can afford to spend about $5.5 billion in fiscal year 2014 (July 2013 to June 2014). That's the most recent estimate of the level of General Fund spending the state can sustain over the long run, from a new paper by Scott Goldsmith, professor emeritus of economics at ISER. The $5.5 billion figure is based on the state's current petroleum nest egg of about $149 billion. The nest egg is a combination of state financial assets (the Permanent Fund and cash reserves) and the value of petroleum still in the ground. 

After three years as director of ISER, Heather Hudson has decided to step down at the end of 2012. Gunnar Knapp, a professor of economics at ISER, has been appointed interim director effective January 1, 2013. 

Heather Hudson will be on leave during spring 2013, writing a book on the history of telecommunications in Alaska and carrying out other research projects before returning to the ISER faculty later in the year. Dr. Hudson came to ISER from the University of San Francisco, where she founded the Telecommunications Management and Policy Program. 

A preliminary report, Alaska Energy Statistics 1960-2011, by Ginny Fay and Alejandra Villalobos Melendez of ISER and Corinna West of the Alaska Energy Authority, is now available, together with workbook tables. Final figures will be available in spring 2013. 

Yan Cimon is an associate professor of strategy at Universite Laval, in Quebec City, and is also currently the Fulbright Visiting Chair in Innovation at the University of Washington. He has studied how Quebec could use e-government—that is, the Internet and other information technology—to help provide services to residents of remote places. With a population comparable to that of Virginia and an area three times that of France, Quebec shares many of the same challenges as Alaska in providing consistent services to all residents.

Lou Pugliaresi is president of the Energy Policy Research Foundation, a not-for-profit organization in Washington, D.C. that studies and analyzes energy issues. He will talk about how U.S. energy markets—especially those for natural gas and liquefied natural gas—are changing. Before joining the foundation, Mr. Pugliaresi held a number of government posts and was a consultant on domestic and international petroleum issues. Join us to hear his views on the changing energy markets.

Vic Fischer talked about his new autobiography and signed copies October 30 in the UAA Consortium Library, at an event attended by about 200 people. The book, written with Charles Wohlforth, traces Fischer’s life from his early days in Germany and Russia to his decades in Alaska, where he was a delegate to the Alaska Constitutional Convention, a member of both the territorial and state senates, and the first director of ISER. Today he is a director emeritus at ISER and continues to study state and local government policy and Alaska-Russia issues. 

Frank Asche is a well-known fisheries economist from Norway and a professor in the Department of Industrial Economics at the University of Stavanger, Norway. World seafood markets are changing rapidly, as more seafood species are being farmed and knowledge from agriculture is being used to enhance the competitiveness of aquaculture products. Those changes are likely to influence all parts of the seafood market. Join us at ISER to hear Frank Asche talk about how he sees the global seafood markets of the future. 

A new Kids Count Alaska Data Book, providing a broad picture of the well-being of Alaska's children, is now available in print and online. The book is an annual publication that brings together information from many sources on the health, safety, education, and economic status of Alaska children statewide and by region. It also compares how children in Alaska and across the country are doing. The book is sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which supports similar programs in all 50 states. It was prepared by Virgene Hanna, project director, and other researchers at ISER.

Columbia University’s Institute of Tele-Information (CITI) has appointed ISER’s director, Heather Hudson, as one of about 20 Inaugural CITI Fellows.