Ahmed Chennak is a Research Assistant Professor with the University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute’s Circular Bioeconomy Convergent Initiative. His academic interests include the areas of industrialization and organization of the agri-food system, production economics, and an emphasis on the economics of innovation and the transition to a circular bioeconomy.

His current research focuses on the economics of the transition from linear to circular bioeconomy supply chains. It examines the system-wide market and welfare impacts of this transition, the incentive structures that can facilitate the adoption of circular methods and processes, and the development of technological, environmental, and economic metrics and indicators of circularity. His research aims to identify potential market failures and to design policies and strategies that can induce socially desirable market outcomes/levels of circularity.

Prior to joining UT-ORII, Dr. Chennak was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he worked closely with his coauthors to develop a general framework that captures the fundamental transformations and technological changes taking place at different stages of the supply chain when transitioning from a linear to a circular economic system. The developed framework can be adapted to a wide range of supply chains, can be applied to a variety of scales, and can be used to conduct technoeconomic analyses and lifecycle assessments to determine the costs, benefits, and the environmental impacts of circularity.

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