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Recently elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, Winthrop Professor David Pannell must occasionally wonder what his life might have been like if he’d chosen another path.

In 1979, when he was deciding what to study at UWA, Professor Pannell – who is also an ARC Federation Fellow in the Faculties of Science and Director of the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy – was torn between music and agricultural science.

He’d always loved science and fancied the idea of becoming a plant breeder, but he also loved music and was playing guitar, bass and singing in Perth hotels several times a week. Eventually, science won out but after a couple of years of study, an inspiring lecturer, the late Dr Henry Schapper, opened Professor Pannell’s eyes to the possibilities of economics as a vehicle for helping science have an impact in the real world.

So he switched career paths.

The Academy to which he has been elected aims to promote excellence in social sciences in Australia, and as part of that it selects a group of new Fellows each year. Professor Pannell’s election is in recognition of his research on the economics of various environmental and natural resource issues.

“I’m an economist, but I started in science, and now most of my work is in collaboration with scientists from various disciplines,” Professor Pannell said. “I’m especially pleased that interdisciplinary research was seen as worthy of recognition by the Academy.”

Professor Pannell’s research includes the economics of environmental conservation; environmental policy; farmer adoption of land conservation practices; risk management; and economics of farming systems. His research has been published in five books and 150 journal articles and book chapters, and has been recognised with awards from the USA, Australia, Canada and the UK, including the 2009 ARC Eureka Prize for Interdisciplinary Research.

You can listen to his music online .

Published in UWA News , 15 October 2012