Welcome Germán and Chitpasong, GFAR’s two newest PhD students

Mr. Germán Puga is joining GFAR to undertake his PhD under the supervision of GFAR’s Executive Director Professor Wendy Umberger, Emeritus Professor Kym Anderson, and Associate Professor Firmin Doko Tchatoka. His thesis will look at wine economics. Germán studied agricultural engineering in Argentina, undertaking parts of his degree in Brazil and the United States, and completed a master’s degree  in agricultural economics at the University of Western Australia. He has experience in farm management and consultancy, and has worked at Concha & Toro, the Argentinean Wine Corporation and the National University of Cuyo, among other organisations. Germán is very excited to be joining the GFAR team, and is looking forward to networking with agricultural economists and other researchers in Adelaide. 

Ms. Chitpasong Kousonsavath is joining GFAR with a John Allright Fellowship (JAF) scholarship from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), to undertake a PhD program looking at consumer behaviour. Chiptasong has a bachelor’s degree in plant breeding from Khonkaen University in Thailand. She went on to complete a master’s degree in agribusiness with GFAR at the University of Adelaide. After graduating from her master’s in 2010, Chiptasong went to the National University of Laos where she taught marketing and agricultural economics and participated in research projects, including an ACIAR-funded project working in Laos and Cambodia. Agriculture markets, consumer behaviour and value chain analysis for agricultural commodities are her main research interests. Chiptasong will be supervised by GFAR’s Professor Wendy Umberger, Dr. Di Zeng and Dr. Lenka Malek.

Welcome to GFAR Germán and Chiptasong! We’re so glad to see you in the office.