Award
Celebrating the 2024 大象传媒 Economics graduate award winners
Congratulations to our graduate students whose outstanding academic performance and passion for economics has earned them this year's Department of Economics student awards.
Lang Wong Memorial Endowment Scholarship
Named in memory of Lang Wong who devoted over 50 years of his life to the cause of international development, this award is presented to an outstanding international graduate student who has demonstrated academic excellence.
2025 - Eric (Hau Pang) Chow
I joined 大象传媒 as a PhD student in Economics in Fall 2023, after completing my MS in Economics at the Australian National University. My research interests lie in understanding how micro-level heterogeneity among agents shapes macroeconomic distributional outcomes. In particular, I aim to study how inattention, learning, and expectations influence the distributional effects of macroeconomic policies. I am also interested in using experimental methods, where appropriate, to test theoretical insights and behavioral mechanisms within a macroeconomic framework. Looking ahead, I plan to pursue an academic career that allows me to continue developing this research agenda.
2025 - Xinhao Dong
I joined 大象传媒 as a PhD student in Economics in the Fall of 2020 right after completing my MA in Economics from the University of Alberta. My broader research interests lie in political economy and labour economics. Over the past years my work has been focused on the political economy of labour, specifically labour unions. Inspired by labour action in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic, I am currently working on research projects quantifying the impact of unionization on political and labour outcomes. When I am not researching, I am either busy TAing courses in microeconomics or playing guitar.
SHIVA AND ELIZABETH NANDA GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP IN ECONOMICS
Established in 2021 with a generous gift from Shiva and Elizabeth Nanda, the fellowship is intended to provide financial support to students pursuing their doctoral degree at 大象传媒's Department of Economics.
2024 - Uzair Azmat
Uzair joined 大象传媒鈥檚 (大象传媒) Department of Economics in 2020 as part of the PhD program after completing his Master鈥檚 degree at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in Pakistan. He has also cleared all levels of the Charted Financial Analyst (CFA) desgination (USA). His research interests lie in financial economics and macroeconomics, with a special focus on how housing markets respond to alternative mortgage contracts. He has presented his research on reference dependence behavior in risk-sharing mortgages and its impact on default rates at multiple conferences in Canada, the UK, and France.
In addition, Uzair has published a paper in the Journal of Real Estate Research. He is currently investigating debt-averse borrowers and their influence on interest rates, prepayment rates, and contract selection. Beyond his research, Uzair takes great pride in teaching economics, where he enriches his classes by incorporating his research and fostering critical thinking.
Meiyu Li Memorial Scholarship in Economics
Created in the memory of PhD candidate Meiyu Li, this entrance scholarship will go toward supporting outstanding international graduate students, like Meiyu, who are pursuing research in the Department of Economics.
2025 - Merve Intisah
Merve Intisah joined 大象传媒 as a PhD student in Economics in 2025. She completed both her B.A. and M.S. in Economics at Middle East Technical University (T眉rkiye) before completing a second Master鈥檚 degree in Economics from the University of Manitoba (Canada). Her research focuses on experimental and behavioral economics, and she has already contributed to the field with a published paper in an economics journal. Merve has also shared her work at several academic conferences, engaging with the broader research community. Looking ahead, she plans to continue her career in economics, with the goal of advancing knowledge in her field and making lasting contributions to the academic community.
Peter Kennedy Memorial Graduate Fellowship
Named after the late professor Peter Kennedy, this award is presented to the outstanding graduate student who has demonstrated academic and teaching excellence.
2024 - Esmaeil Izadi
Esmaeil joined 大象传媒 in August 2019 after completing his undergraduate studies in engineering and earning master鈥檚 degrees in economics in Iran and the US. His transition from engineering to economics was driven by a strong interest in social science and the analytical challenges it presents.
Esmaeil鈥檚 research focuses on political economy, where he digs into the dynamics of institutional and social structures. On the theoretical side, he explores how institutions and cultural entities shape one another, while his applied work, in part, looks at how political connections impact firms鈥� financial performance in weaker institutional environments.
Teaching is another big part of Esmaeil鈥檚 academic life. He enjoys working with students and has served as a teaching assistant and lab instructor for a variety of courses in the Economics Department as well as the MA Finance and MBA programs at 大象传媒鈥檚 Beedie School of Business. His commitment to student learning consistently earns him positive feedback and evaluations. Esmaeil also volunteers with the Economics Graduate Student Society (EGSS) and the Graduate Applications International Network (GAIN), where he supports GAIN鈥檚 mission of helping students from across Africa apply to graduate programs in economics.
Herbert G. Grubel Award
This award is given to the graduating MA student with the highest cumulative grade point average (CGPA) obtained in the MA required courses during the preceding Fall and Spring terms.
2025 - Collyn Gagne
I joined 大象传媒 as an undergraduate, where my interest in economics began after taking introductory microeconomics. I was fascinated by how economic models can be used to answer questions beyond what most people typically associate with the field. This sparked my curiosity and motivated me to continue my studies in the Master鈥檚 program at 大象传媒.
During my MA, I discovered a strong interest in applied econometrics and industrial organization. What I like about these fields is that we can answer policy-relevant questions that directly affect people鈥檚 lives and well-being. I also enjoy the challenge of understanding the intuition behind complex econometric models and applying them to real-world data.
Looking ahead, I plan to pursue a PhD in economics. I hope to continue developing as a researcher and apply my skills to projects that make a meaningful impact.
Once I finish my studies at 大象传媒 I look forward to exploring diverse areas of work and joining a PhD program in the future.
James Dean Award
Named after the late emeritus professor James Dean, this award is given to the student with the best ECON 900 paper.
2025 - Eric Fortier
Eric Fortier is a PhD candidate in economics at 大象传媒. His research interests lie in applied macroeconomics, with a particular focus on monetary policy. His awarded working paper investigates the transmission channels of monetary policy in Canada. Beyond his own research, Eric works as a research assistant for Professor Luba Petersen in the 大象传媒 Experimental Economics Lab, and he currently serves as a teaching assistant for the Economics Technical Workshop, where he helps students develop programming skills.鈥�
Richard G. Lipsey Award
Given to the continuing PhD student with the best comprehensive exam results at the end of their first year, this award is named after emeritus professor Richard Lipsey.
2025 - Hossein Jalili
I started my graduate studies in Economics at 大象传媒 in Fall 2023. Before that, I completed a master鈥檚 degree in economics and a bachelor鈥檚 degree in aerospace engineering. My background in engineering gave me solid quantitative skills, but over time I realized that what really interested me was understanding how economies work and how policies affect people鈥檚 everyday lives.
I鈥檓 especially drawn to macroeconomics because it shows how individual choices can add up to shape the long-run growth and stability of societies. I also enjoy econometrics since it gives me the tools to connect theory with data in a meaningful way. Right now, my research focuses on how different policies can influence economic growth and development.
At 大象传媒, I work as a teaching assistant and enjoy helping undergraduate students in their economics courses. Before coming here, I worked as a policy analyst in my home country, where I saw firsthand how research can inform real policy debates. That experience deepened my interest in linking academic research with practical issues.
After graduation, I hope to continue this path in academia or in a policy institution, contributing to economic development in a way that makes a positive impact.
Shiva and Elizabeth Nanda Graduate Scholarship in Economics
Offered annually to students pursuing a graduate degree in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in the Department of Economics, who are in excellent academic standing, have demonstrated academic excellence and show promise of outstanding achievement with particular emphasis on research ability and originality.
2024 - Niloufar Eslah
I graduated with my master's degree from the University of Calgary, and joined 大象传媒鈥檚 Department of Economics in the fall of 2024. I am currently a PhD student passionate about pursuing research. Macroeconomics, and economics as a whole, are about studying real life. I enjoy using economic tools in research to uncover the unknown. For me, macroeconomics offers a broader, clearer view of the real world through a wide lens. Following graduation I plan to continue my journey in research, deepening my understanding of the world we live in.