The PhD Program at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business has welcomed 17 new PhD students, who are beginning their academic careers this fall. Their diverse backgrounds prepared them for the training and projects ahead, as they join our current PhD students and Smith’s best faculty researchers, says Robert J. Windle, director of doctoral programs and a professor in the Department of Logistics, Business and Public Policy.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- U.S. oil prices fell to a six-year low on Aug. 11, 2015, and one person not surprised would be Julian L. Simon, an economist at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business who died in 1998. When many scholars predicted ever-dwindling oil supplies, Simon argued that market forces would encourage innovation in extraction and energy alternatives.

What happens when the two key pieces of economic data suggest different paths for U.S. interest rates? That's the situation playing out now as the Federal Reserve maps its course. The Smith School's Robert J. Windle explains.