Harbert College assistant professor of finance Justin Benefield was named the Kinnard Young Scholar Award winner for 2017. Presented by the American Real Estate Society, the award recognizes outstanding scholars at an early stage of their careers.

“For an academic, there really is no better compliment,” said Benefield. “This provides external validation that the work I have done in my early career has been important and/or consequential.”

Benefield’s research has appeared in elite publications such as the Journal of Real Estate and Finance, Real Estate Research Economics and the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics. He was also ranked among the Top 25 authors for 2016, according to the Real Estate Academic Leadership.

“Most academics do good work, but it is often a difficult task to identify areas where that work translates into broader impact on the academy or industry practice,” he said. “I think this award provides an additional data point to support the argument that my work has made a difference.”

Benefield noted the importance of research into real estate, particularly in the wake of the financial crises of 2008 and 2009.

“As academics have studied the financial crisis over the past 10 years, a lot of that research, by necessity, has dealt with one or more aspects of real estate and real estate markets,” he added. “Increased attention to real estate from a variety of academics across a multitude of disciplines has certainly helped drive some of the coverage of real estate topics in the popular press.”