I am on PTO today, so this is a prepost.

It’s a new week, and a new Meet A Deac! Today we are going back to the classroom to meet Tommy Leung of the department of Economics.

Tommy Leung, Associate Professor of EconomicsTommy, thanks so much for being our Meet A Deac this week. Let’s start with the easy questions: please tell me your title and how long you have been at Wake. I’m an Associate Professor in the Economics Department. I’ve been here since Fall 2016, so this is my sixth year.

And tell me a little about your educational background. I got my PhD in Economics from the University of Minnesota. My undergraduate degree was Business and Administration (with a concentration in Economics) from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Before coming to Wake Forest, I was an Assistant Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where I also taught Economics.

In layperson’s terms, what do you do at Wake? I teach Economics! Specifically, there are two courses that I have taught so far at Wake Forest. One of them is ECN 150 (Principles of Economics) in which I teach the basic concepts (demand and supply…) of Economics. This is an interesting course because I have the chance to introduce how many things (such as whether to grant COVID vaccine an emergency approval) can be viewed/analyzed from the economics perspectives. Because it is a pre-req for the Business major, I have had a lot of bright and motivated students over the years!

Another course that I have taught at Wake is ECN 393 (Economics of Industry) in which I discuss how firms make decisions in different market structures, and how should government regulate different markets in response to the rise of market powers from firms. This is a more advanced economics course than 150, and students will need to be “tech-up” in order to understand many of the materials. They would need to make a present an anti-trust case towards the end of the course as well. But I find it very fulfilling to have guided them making many brilliant presentations over the years!

Besides the two courses, I have also guided students to work on their honor thesis, and hired some students as my research assistants over the years. I enjoy showing the students the way to conduct research in economics. Regardless of whether they move on to pursue a postgraduate degree in economics (many of them do not), these skills are still useful for their future career.

COVID impacted all of our jobs in so many ways – what new roles did you take on during COVID? What were some of the challenges? I got tenure during COVID! So that’s one “challenge” that I took. Joking aside, one of the major challenges during COVID was to work from home. Everything went virtual. Teaching was virtual, doing research with coauthors was virtual. I had to redesign my courses, make videos, and sit in front of my computer for hours. While technology is good in the sense that we are able to work virtually, I could not wait to be back working on campus!

Despite COVID, I was still able to work on my research, which is focused on the economics of digitization. My project with Dr. Koleman Strumpf (also of the Economics Department) on the causes and impact of A/B testing in the media industry was recently funded by the Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Finally, my youngest son was born last year during COVID. So that’s another BIG project there as well.

Congratulations on both tenure and the new little one in your house! What were you most looking forward to as we started the fall semester? In-person teaching and really interacting with students and colleagues!

So you obviously have a lot of contact with students as a teaching faculty member. What advice would you give your students if they asked you? Be open to takin more challenging courses. College is probably the last stop where you can solely focus on learning before you go on with your career. I had not taken many math courses in high school and early in my college years, but then took real analysis (Math) in my last year of college and it was one of my favorite courses I have ever taken. I sort of regretted not taking it earlier.

How about advice you would offer to parents and families? What advice would you offer them? I know many students at Wake are well supported by their parents and families. So keep up the good work 🙂

In your opinion, what is the best part of working at Wake? There are many things I like about working at Wake Forest. Students at Wake are bright and hardworking, I have colleagues who share similar research interests. But I think the collegial environment in the department is the thing I appreciate the most.

Now it’s time for our bonus questions!

Book you are reading now: The Age of Openness: China before Mao by Frank Dikotter

Book: The Age of Openness China Before Mao

Favorite music: Norah Jones

Musician Norah Jones

Favorite movies, TV shows, Netflix, etc.: The Office

the Office - NBC tv show

Websites you frequent: Google

Guilty pleasures: Chinese food

Sichuan food dishes

Introvert or extrovert? Introvert

Something most people don’t know about you: I am a big soccer fan

Tommy, it was great to have you with us as our Meet A Deac, and thank you for all you do for our students and our campus community!

As a reminder, our Meet A Deac archive is here.

 

— by Betsy Chapman, Ph.D. (’92, MA ’94)

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