Aaron Scherf

Aaron (they/them) is a first-year PhD student in Sustainable Development. Their research interests include agricultural and environmental economics, remote sensing and geospatial analysis, and econometric methods and machine learning. Their specific interests include the use of novel data sources to inform innovations that improve the resilience of smallholder farmers in areas vulnerable to climate and conflict shocks.

Aaron holds an MSc in Development Practice from UC Berkeley, an MSc in Mathematics from Indiana State University, and an MSc in Computer Science from Georgia Tech. Before joining Columbia, Aaron was a Fulbright Scholar with the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Germany and worked for five years as a diplomat with the US Agency for International Development. In their free time, Aaron enjoys running, reading, and learning languages.