Muskan is a Research professional working under Professors Yana Gallen and Juanna Schrøter Joensen. She is interested in studying social institutions such as gender and caste and their implications on political and economic decision-making.

Contact: muskanaggarwal@uchicago.edu

Funmilayo Ajayi is a Pre-doctoral Research Professional at DIL. She is currently engaged in the Safe Water Initiative in Nigeria. In her current role, she provides support to lead researchers Professor Michael Kremer and Professor Elisa M Maffioli in their efforts to implement the safe water initiative in Nigeria. Previously, Funmilayo worked as a Research Assistant for Professor David Engerman at the Jackson School of Public Policy. During this time, she conducted research on quantitative and qualitative trends in development economics. She also focused on analyzing AIDS funding allocation, funding strategies, and potential disparities in funding distribution from specific donors to recipients across different regions of the world. Funmilayo’s interests lie in development economics, policy, and finance. She holds a master’s degree in International and Development Economics from Yale University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. Prior to pursuing her master’s degree, she gained professional experience as an Audit Associate at KPMG Nigeria.

Contact: funmilayoajayi@uchicago.edu

Scott Blatte is a Research Professional for Professor Josh Gottlieb, working under BFI’s Health Economics Initiative on a range of projects. Prior to BFI, Scott earned his BA in Economics and Political Science at Tufts University while working for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. His research interests cross both Economics and Political Science, with a particular interest in information, including how we capture it and how it influences economic decision making.

Contact: sblatte@uchicago.edu

Daniela  currently works as a Research Professional at the BIP Lab. Previously, she worked as a research assistant and teaching assistant at Universidad del Pacifico and as a consultant at the World Bank. Daniela received her B.A. in Economics at Universidad del Pacifico (Lima, Peru).

Marion Carr is a Predoctoral Research Professional at the Becker Friedman Institute working with Chang-Tai Hsieh and Marianne Bertrand. She graduated from Swarthmore College in 2022 with an honors major in Economics and an honors minor in Philosophy.

Junbiao Chen is passionate about spatial economics, search and matching, and computational economics. Chen work with Profs. Jonathan Dingel and Felix Tintelnot. Outside research, Chen enjoys art and movies.

Contact: junbiaochen@uchicago.edu

Pengyu Chen is a Predoctoral Research Professional in the Macro Finance Research (MFR) Program at the Becker Friedman Institute, working with Professor Lars Hansen on research projects related to macroeconomic modeling and dynamic simulations. Pengyu holds an M.A. in Social Science with a concentration in Economics from the University of Chicago, M.A. in Economics from London school of Economics, BS in Mathematical economics and statistics from the University of Birmingham.

Contact: pengyu@uchicago.edu

Yen-Chi is a Predoctoral Research Professional for Professor Magne Mogstad. Yen-Che has a BA in Economics from National Taiwan University.

Contact: yenchichen@uchicago.edu

Michelle Cherian is Predoctoral research professional at DIL. In her current position, she will be supporting lead researcher Akito Kamei and professor Elisa M. Maffioli on a scaled-up chlorine coupon program in Kenya, while also supporting efforts to study the feasibility of setting up similar programs in India and Nigeria. She has previously worked as a data research assistant on gender-related projects at Oxford University as well as a policy consultant in the education space at the OECD. She has also led a large-scale RCT in Punjab and Haryana in India as a research associate at J-PAL SA, supervising implementation-monitoring, managing field teams, and working on survey design, data collection and analysis. Michelle completed her master’s degree in Economics and Public policy from the Paris School of Economics and her bachelor’s degree in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University.

Contact: cherianm@uchicago.edu

Joy Dada is a Research Professional at DIL working on health research projects in South America and Africa. Prior to becoming a pre-doctoral researcher, Joy worked as a Research Assistant for University of Chicago Professor Pablo Peña at DIL assessing the impact of receiving free glasses on the academic performance of public school students in Mexico. She previously worked as Research Assistant Intern at The Hamilton Project at Brookings, contributing to projects on social welfare programs and co-authoring a policy memo on the Nurse Licensure Compact. She is particularly interested in early childhood intervention and analysing mental health poverty traps. Joy graduated from the University of Chicago with bachelor degrees in Economics and Mathematics.

Contact: jdada@uchicago.edu

Michelle Gard is a Predoctoral Research Professional working with Profs. Zarek Brot-Goldberg and Maggie Shi on health economics research, exploring the cost and quality implications of incentives in healthcare. Prior to joining BFI, she worked across a number of companies in healthcare consulting and tech in Silicon Valley, with roles spanning program management and data analytics at Mercer, Collective Health, Robinhood and Accorded.

Contact: gard@uchicago.edu

Gaia is working as a predoctoral researcher with professors Rachel Glennerster and Anne Karing on a project related to vaccination in Sierra Leone. She earned her bachelor at Bocconi University in Economics and Business and a Double Degree from Bocconi University and SciencesPo in Economics and Business and International Economic Policy. Before joining BFI, she worked in Bangladesh as a Research Coordinator with BRAC on an RCT aiming to reduce Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). She also worked at Bocconi University in Italy on education, specifically on how to mitigate the learning loss caused by the pandemic. Her research interests lie at the intersection between behavioral, development economics and public policy. In her free time, Gaia likes photography and gardening.

Born in Canada, I grew up in the GTA but I have close ties to Tobago where my family is from. My interest in economics, particularly welfare economics, stems from my upbringing and my wanting to understand how we can improve people’s quality of life beyond improving just their incomes. Currently, I am working on investigating trends in the labour market with Professor Thibaut Lamadon.

Contact: kgovernor@uchicago.edu

Maximilian Hippold received a BS in Economics from the Ludwig-Maximilians -Universität in Munich in 2021. During his undergraduate degree he worked as a RA for Prof. Florian Englmaier at the chair of Organizational Economics. He joined Prof. John List’s team for the Chicago Experiments Initiative after spending the previous year enrolled in the MS in Economics at the London School of Economics in 2022. His research interests span various applications of microeconomics with particular focus on education, behavioral economics, political economy and development economics.

Sharad Hotha is a Research Professional at DIL, assisting in providing research products for the Global Educational Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP). After graduating in Computer Science and Economics from BITS-Pilani, Sharad worked briefly in Market Risk Management at Credit Suisse. His most recent role was that of a Research Associate at the Indian School of Business, where he worked on research projects in finance and banking. Sharad’s research interests lie broadly in microeconomics. He’s specifically passionate about research questions relating to inequality, education, and political economy.

Chun Hei Hung is a Predoctoral Research Professional in the Macro Finance Research (MFR) Program at the Becker Friedman Institute, working with Professor Lars Peter Hansen on research projects related to macroeconomic modeling and uncertainty related to climate change. Chun Hei holds a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Oxford. Before joining MFR, he worked in the management consulting industry.

Yueh Ya (Sam) Hsu is a Research Professional working with Erin Kelley and Greg Lane on questions related to refugee welfare and weather forecasting for farmers. Prior to joining BFI, he lived in Bangladesh, where he conducted fieldwork on rural anti-poverty interventions and the psychosocial value of employment for Rohingya refugees.

Sam was raised in Colorado, which means he loves the mountains, and born in Taiwan, which means that food is his love language.

Contact: yuehya@uchicago.edu

Cynthia Ji is a Research Professional at DIL, supporting various education portfolios across Africa. She has recently completed a master’s degree at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Prior to Harris, she received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, where she majored in Data Science and Economics and minored in Music.

Contact: cynthiaji@uchicago.edu

Reigner Kane is a Predoctoral Research Professional working under Profs. Esteban Rossi-Hansberg and Felix Tintelnot on projects involving international trade and economic geography. Reigner’s research interests lie at the intersection of spatial and environmental economics and applied econometrics. They have received a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a M.A. in Social Sciences with a concentration in Economics from the University of Chicago.

Jay Leeds is a Predoctoral Research Professional working with Peter Ganong and Pascal Noel on household finance research. Prior to joining BFI, Jay graduated with Highest Honors from Swarthmore College, where he received the Lang Award.

Contact: leedsjay@uchicago.edu

Tobias completed his undergraduate degree at the LSE and has a master’s from the University of Cambridge. At BFI he will be working for Prof. Manasi Deshpande. He is interested in public, health and labour economics.

Contact: tjleighwood@uchicago.edu

I am interested in working at the intersection of urban, environmental, and development economics. I believe EPIC  is the perfect environment where I can examine, in an empirical manner, the unique problems that we face in the 21st century. Here, I can explore my academic interests and find a supportive, close-knitted community of individuals to learn from and grow together. Outside of economics, I enjoy Renaissance history, architecture, and musicals.

Selene Cueva Madrid is a Research Professional at DIL working on the scaling-up of a chlorine voucher program in Kenya. She previously worked at J-PAL LAC in the evaluation of multiple programs of labor markets, disabilities, education and gender in different countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to this, she worked as a research assistant at the Group for the Analysis of Development (GRADE) in Peru. Selene holds a master’s degree in Economics from Boston University.

Contact: cueva@uchicago.edu

Paul is contributing to research on how economic shocks affect individuals’ religiosity. His academic interests are in econometric methods, data engineering, and machine learning.

Contact: pmcdermott@uchicago.edu

Claire McMahon is a Pre-Doctoral Research Professional at the Market Shaping Accelerator. She supports the work of faculty directors, Michael Kremer, Rachel Glennerster, and Christopher Snyder, on research and policy analysis of market-shaping mechanisms. Claire is currently working on designing pull mechanisms to incentivize the innovation of pandemic preparedness and biosecurity medical countermeasures. She holds a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics from Dartmouth College.

Contact: clairemcmahon@uchicago.edu

Purushottam Mohanty is a Becker Friedman Institute Pre-Doctoral Research Professional working under Professor Oeindrila Dube on a variety of topics in the space of political economy. He is interested in pursuing research in the field of development economics and political economy. Previously, he worked as a Senior Data Associate at Good Business Lab. Purushottam earned his MS in Economics from the Paris School of Economics and BA in Economics from the University of Delhi.

Hussein Moussa graduated with a dual degree in Economics and Applied Mathematics from the American University of Beirut (AUB), with minors in statistics and Arabic literature. His broad research interests span across development and experimental economics and leveraging machine learning tools to tackle socioeconomic challenges, especially in the global south where data-driven policies have become increasingly important. Looking ahead, Hussein aspires to pursue a Ph.D. in economics and contribute to the advancement of the global south.

Contact: husseinm@uchicago.edu

Seyed Mohsen Alavi is a pre-doctoral Research Professional working in the Becker Friedman Institute’s Industrial Organization Initiative. He works under the supervision of Professor Ali Hortacsu and Professor Chad Syverson on projects related to Industrial Organization, including topics such as treasury auction markets. Before joining BFI, Seyed graduated from the Sharif University of Technology’s Master of Science in Economics. In his master’s dissertation, he investigated the effect of information feedback on peak load shifting for 2 million households, which is unique in terms of the target population size in the related literature. He also completed a BS.c degree in Industrial Engineering, with a minor in Economics, at the same institution.

Contact: smalavi@uchicago.edu

Website: https://bit.ly/smabfi

Anastasia Nebolsina is a Research Professional at the Becker Friedman Institute working with Leo Bursztyn.

Contact: anebolsina@uchicago.edu

I am originally from Michigan, and was first motivated to engage with environmental issues by the various forms of chemical and industrial water degradation occurring in my home state. At Swarthmore, I was able to use economic tools to study interventions intended to limit water use in drought-prone areas, the political impacts of wildfire exposure, and a variety of other topics that deepened my interest in these areas and gave me a sharper appreciation of their human impacts.

Nick works as a Research Professional in the Health Initiative, where he supports research conducted by Joshua Gottlieb and Jonathan Dingel at the intersection of trade and health economics.

Contact: nickniers@uchicago.edu

MA (Honors) in Economics at The University of Edinburgh.

Shashank is a Predoctoral Research Professional at DIL. At DIL, he works on economics of education and assists in research projects associated with the Global Educational Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP). Prior to joining DIL, Shashank interned at the Good Business Lab working on evaluating interventions in labor well-being and productivity. His interests include development policy, political economy of development, and governance. Shashank completed his Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, India.

Haomin Qin is a Predoctoral Research Professional in the Macro Finance Research (MFR) Program at the Becker Friedman Institute, working with Professor Lars Hansen on research projects related to macroeconomic modeling and asset pricing. Haomin holds an M.A. in Social Science with a concentration in Economics from the University of Chicago.

Ana Radu is a Pre-doctoral Research Professional at DIL, currently supporting the scaling-up of a chlorine vouchers program in Western Kenya. Previously she worked as a Research Assistant for professor Torsten Figueiredo Walter and interned with Innovations for Poverty Action and the World Bank. Ana holds a B.S. in Mathematics and Economics from New York University Abu Dhabi.

Contact: aradu@uchicago.edu

Devan Rawlings is a Research Professional at BFI, working with Professor Magne Mogstad on the labor team. Devan grew up in Windsor, Canada, a manufacturing town that neighbors Detroit. His experiences in his hometown motivated his strong interest in labor economics and policy evaluation. His topics of focus include manufacturing decline, re-skilling and up-skilling programs, and unionization.

Contact: drawlings@uchicago.edu

Ramiro Rossi is a Predoctoral Research Professional working under Prof. Eric Zwick on projects involving macroeconomics and fiscal policy. Ramiro’s research interests are macroeconomics, econometrics and behavioral economics. He holds a BA in economics at Universidad de Buenos Aires.

contact: ramiror@uchicago.edu

Ethan Sawyer is a Predoctoral Research Professional at the Becker Friedman Institute working with Evan Rose. His interests are in labor, education, and crime.

Contact: esawyer@uchicago.edu

Angira Shukla is working with Professor Oeindrila Dube on projects in the field of political economy; one evaluates an RCT to reduce Farmer-Herder conflict in Nigeria and the other evaluates the effect of introduction of private radio stations in Pakistan. Prior to this, Shukla has done research in the field of environmental, behavioral and experimental economics which involved designing and running her own experiment in India.

Contact: angiras@uchicago.edu

Yash Singh graduated from the University of Minnesota with a double major in Mathematics and Economics and minors in Computer Science and Economics. Singh’s senior thesis relates large and persistent earnings losses experienced by displaced workers to their firm specific skills. More broadly, Singh is interested in how the diffusion of new ideas and technologies is intermediated by interactions between workers and firms.

Contact: singhy@uchicago.edu

Rathan Sudheer is a Research Professional at DIL. He is currently working to support the agriculture projects in Kenya. He previously worked with EPIC India as a Senior Research Associate for three years where he supported multiple research projects at the intersection of energy and climate change. Rathan holds a masters degree in Public Policy and Governance from Azim Premji University, India.

Contact: rsudheer@uchicago.edu

Sara Restrepo Tamayo holds an MPP and MA in Economics from Universidad del Rosario, from Bogotá, Colombia. She has previously worked at the InterAmerican Development Bank, Innovations for Poverty Action, and the Central Bank of Colombia. She has worked on RCTs looking to reduce the gap in STEM between K-12 girls and boys, the RECOVR project, and measuring the impact of VAT devolution to the poorest in expenditure outcomes.

Tiupin has a BS in Economics from Higher School of Economics in Saint Petersburg and an MS in Economic and Social Sciences from Bocconi University. Tiupin works with Prof. Rodrigo Adao, Prof. Rohan Kekre and Prof. Guido Lorenzoni on international finance and trade projects. Research interests include monetary economics, international finance and international trade.

Contact: stiupin@uchicago.edu

Juri Trifonov is a Predoctoral Research Professional at the Becker Friedman Institute’s Big Data Initiative. He works with Professors Azeem Shaikh and Max Tabord-Meehan on research in econometric theory. Juri grew up in Tallinn, Estonia. He received his B.S. in Economics and M.S. in Finance from Higher School of Economics. Juri’s research interests lie broadly in econometric theory.

Kuan-Ju Tseng is from from Taiwan. Tseng graduated with a BA in Economics with Honors from National Taiwan University in 2022. Tseng is interested in applied economics, particularly in issues related to labor, health and family.

Contact: kuanjutseng@uchicago.edu

Mexico Vergara is an RP at BFI working with Chris Blattman on the unintended consequences of violence. Previously, he worked at the Poverty Global Practice Group of the World Bank focusing on female labor participation and the distributional effects of trade in the South Asia and MENA regions. Previously, he worked as an Economist in the International Economy division of the Central Bank of Mexico. He holds a B.S. in Economics, a B.A. in Political Science and a M.A. in Applied Economics from ITAM. He also recently graduated with a M.A. in Public Policy from the Harris School of Public Policy.

Contact: mexico@uchicago.edu

Santiago Velasquez is a Research Professional at DIL in educational research projects in South America and Africa. Prior to coming to Chicago, Santiago worked as a Research Assistant for UC Berkeley Ph.D. Student Arlen Guarin and UCLA Professor Juliana Londoño-Velez assessing the impact of the Colombian reparation program for victims of the armed conflict. He has also previously worked as RA for Professor Jorge Tamayo and as an intern in the Colombian Central Bank. Santiago is completing his master’s degree at EAFIT University in Colombia and holds a bachelor’s in Economics from the same institution.

Contact: svelasquez1@uchicago.edu

Cole Weaver is a Research Professional at DIL. He recently completed an MA in Economics at the University of Chicago, where he took a course on the practicalities of Randomized Controlled Trials. The course, instructed by Rachel Glennerster, ignited a curiosity in Development Economics that ultimately led him to apply to DIL. As of now, his research interests primarily lie in the economics of education, education more broadly, and inequality. Born and raised in Texas, Cole brings his southern charm, work ethic, and unique perspective to the DIL team. Before his MA degree, Cole previously worked at Harvard’s Department of Health Care Policy as a full time Research Assistant under several Health Economists.

Contact: coleweaver@uchicago.edu

Tianyu Wu is from Beijing, China. He attended Washington University in St. Louis for his undergraduate studies from 2020-2023. Now he is working at UChicago BFI for Professors Ali Hortacsu and Chad Syverson on projects related to Industrial Organization.

Contact: tianyuw@uchicago.edu

Ian Xu is a Predoctoral Research Professional in the Becker Friedman Institute’s Big Data Initiative. He works with Professors Guillaume Pouliot and Alexander Torgovitsky on research in econometric theory. He received his B.S. in managerial economics and B.A. in statistics from the University of California, Davis.

Contact: ianxu@uchicago.edu

Luis Yépez Salazar is a Predoctoral Research Professional working with professor Carolin Pflueger. He assists on research projects that explore how monetary policy and the financial markets are linked. His research interests are in macro-finance, monetary policy and international macroeconomics. Luis completed his M.A. and B.A. in Economics from Universidad del Pacífico in Peru. Also, he worked as an analyst at the Central Reserve Bank of Peru.

Contact: luisyepezsa@uchicago.edu

Zhang is a research professional at Becker Friedman Institute for professor Esteban Rossi-Hansberg.

Mengdi Zhang is a Predoctoral Research Professional at BFI-China under the supervision of Professor Zhiguo He, working on projects related to Chinese political economy and finance. She holds a MA in Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences (Economics) from Columbia University and a BS double majored in Computer Science and Quantitative Social Analysis from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Shengning Zhang is a Pre-doctoral Research Professional at DIL. She is currently working to support agriculture and education projects. Before joining DIL, she completed a masters degree at the Harris School of Public Policy, the University of Chicago. Prior, Shengning was a research assistant at UC Berkeley’s Center for Effective Global Action, supporting Kenya Life Panel Survey and related analysis.

Contact: shengningz@uchicago.edu

Xiaoyang Zhang is a Research Professional at the Becker Friedman Institute. He works with Professor Joshua Gottlieb on projects related to health economics. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Peking University and a MA degree in social sciences from the University of Chicago.

Contact: xiaoyangzhang@uchicago.edu