Greg Tkacz is Professor of Economics and Jules Léger Research Chair in the Humanities and Social Sciences at StFX. He is also a Research Fellow at the Centre interuniversitaire en analyse des organisations (CIRANO) in Montréal. Dr. Tkacz specializes in monetary policy and economic forecasting. Prior to joining StFX in 2010, he spent 14 years as a researcher and manager at the Bank of Canada in Ottawa. In that capacity, he led a team that provided independent policy advice to Governor Mark Carney during the 2008/9 global financial crisis using alternative economic models and indicators. Dr. Tkacz is the author of over 50 policy and peer-reviewed studies on topics such as incorporating “big data” in economic forecasting, using machine learning methods in economics, estimating policy-neutral interest rates, and testing for asymmetric effects of monetary policy on the economy. His work on using Google Trends to predict economic recessions received global media attention, with stories about his findings appearing in The Globe and Mail and National Post, the Wall Street Journal, and CNN Expansión. Professor Tkacz currently sits on the editorial boards of several international journals, including Quantitative Finance and Economics, the National Accounting Review, and Econometrics: Advances in Applied Data Analysis. In 2020, he also served as a guest editor for a special issue of Canadian Public Policy on the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.