Peter Helmberger has proven himself to be an outstanding scholar in the agricultural economics profession. His ideas have led to many significant publications and have stimulated numerous research efforts on new frontiers of knowledge. Publications of which he is a author or a co-author have won five major research awards from AAEA alone. His scholarship and creativity have profoundly influenced many colleagues and students over the years.

Born on a farm in Minnesota, Peter Helmberger received undergraduate and master's training from the University of Minnesota. He received his Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of California-Berkeley in 1961. Except for a few years at Pennsylvania State University (1960-1962) and the University of California-Berkeley(1968-1969), Helmberger spent most of his professional career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Early in his career, Helmberger was destined to conduct high quality research and to produce significant contributions to agricultural economics. His early work on cooperatives proved to be a seminal contribution to agricultural economics. It broke the path for a generation of research on the role of cooperatives in the farm sector. His research on cooperatives won a 1966 American Farm Economic Association Award(with Sidney Haws).

His work on marketing and industrial organization made him a leader in this field. It has generated many research publications in major journals (including the AJAE and the American Economic Review) and a 1973 AAEA Research Award for his book entitled Market Structure and Performance(with J. Blake Imel and Michael Behr). His expertise in this field of marketing led the AAEA to invite him to write a literature survey on agricultural marketing (with Gerald Campbell and William Dobson, published in 1981). Finally, his work on both marketing and cooperatives culminated with a 1988 AAEA Award for Quality Research and Discovery (with Willard Mueller and Thomas Paterson).

In the 1970's, Helmberger started to make major contributions in two related areas: the economics of government farm programs and the economics. Again, his research led to numerous publications in major journals (including the AJAE and the American Economic Review) and to a 1985 AAEA Award for Outstanding Journal Article (with Vincent Akinyosoye). In particular, his work on the economics of storage and market stabilization has been pathbreaking and now plays an important role in policy formulation at the top echelon of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Finally, his analytical skills applied to the understanding of the economics of agricultural policy are well communicated in his recent book entitled, Economic Analysis of Farm Programs (published by McGraw-Hill in 1991). One reviewer of the book wrote that ̉the chapters which analyze the main policy and programs "are exceptionally well done." Another reviewer commented that the chapter on marketing order programs is "the best treatment available of this topic that I have seen."

Peter Helmberger has profoundly influenced the agricultural economics profession by showing how economic analysis can be used toward developing a better understanding of a variety of complex real world problems. His work illustrates well how the command of analytical tools can help improve the investigation of efficiency and distributional effects of many policy and institutional issues facing the agricultural sector.

The contribution to the profession of Peter Helmberger in teaching is just as strong as his research. He has worked closely with many students who have learned from him the challenges of good economic analysis and the rigors of his high standards for academic excellence. Finally, as an Associate Editor of AJAE from 1984 to 1989, he has contributed his expertise to help set the direction for agricultural economic research in the association.

In summary, as evidence by the quality of his work and the many awards he has received, Peter Helmberger has made many outstanding contributions to Agricultural Economics. His creative research hash generated many new ideas that have advanced scientific knowledge in agricultural economics and will influence the profession for a long time to come.