Clark Halpern

Background

About Clark Halpern

A young researcher in the circular intersection between our food systems, the environment, and climate change. He is currently a PhD candidate at Wageningen University in collaboration with Cornell University, where he researches circular food system economics. His PhD supervisors are Hannah van Zanten, Loekie Schreefel, Michiel van Dijk, and Mario Herrero. Clark previously consulted with the World Bank Group, where he worked to create climate-smart livestock systems via targeted policy and investment interventions. Prior to the World Bank Group and his Ph.D, Clark volunteered as a Peace Corps Agricultural Extension Volunteer for two years in Ghana, where he lived in a rural agro-pastoral community in the Bono-East Region. He has dual MSc degrees in Resilient Farming and Food Systems and Agroecology at Wageningen University and ISARA-Lyon, respectively. His MSc thesis was recognized as one of the top MSc theses in the Netherlands when it won the Unilever Research Prize for its contribution to the UN SDGs. His education is built on his undergraduate experience at the University of Chicago, where he gained a BSc in Environmental Science and a BA in Biology, specializing in Microbiology. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, baking, and running marathons. He won the Blue Ribbon Prize in the layer cake category at the 2017 Monmouth County Fair.