Inside Iowa State Dec. 1, 1995 Alumnus D. Gale Johnson To Be Honored For Achievements by Anne Dolan An alumnus of Iowa State who spent several years on the faculty here and went on to become one of the most respected experts internationally in agricultural economics, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Letters during commencement exercises Saturday, Dec. 16. D. Gale Johnson will be honored for extraordinary career achievements in research, teaching and outreach. Johnson received the bachelor's degree (1938) in agricultural business and the doctorate (1945) in agricultural economics from what then was Iowa State College. He earned a master's degree in 1939 from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He was an assistant professor of agricultural economics at Iowa State from 1941 to 1944, when he joined the faculty at the University of Chicago as a research associate. He has remained at the university since, rising through the ranks to serve as professor of economics, dean of the Division of Social Sciences, chair of the economics department, vice president and dean of faculties and provost. Currently, he is a professor emeritus, though he continues to teach and study agricultural economic problems in Russia and China. During his career, Johnson served as consultant or economic adviser to more than a dozen organizations, including the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Army, President Kennedy's Task Force on Foreign Economic Assistance, Agency for International Development, National Commission on Population Growth and the American Future, U.S. Council on International Economic Policy and the National Advisory Commission on Food and Fiber. He is one of a small number of economists who correctly predicted the improvement in per capita world food supplies over the past 25 years. He has written nearly 300 papers during his career, with his major contributions coming in the areas of organization and contribution of labor resources, agricultural policy in high-income countries, the former Soviet Union and China, and economic issues facing developing countries. His most acclaimed books are Forward Prices for Agriculture and World Agriculture in Disarray. Johnson is a fellow of the American Association of Agricultural Economics and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is the 103rd recipient of an honorary degree from Iowa State. __________ University Relations Iowa State University