Handbook

The distinctive and innovative nature of this program requires a core set of courses that provide an interdisciplinary grounding. Each of these courses is taught on the level expected of first- or second-year PhD students in the affiliated departments. The course structure is designed to provide students with PhD-level training in economics and a natural science field, complemented by integrative courses in sustainable development designed specifically for this program and courses in social sciences. The course structure is designed to combine flexibility to pursue an individual field of study, with the development of broad-based skills and knowledge. The core curriculum consists of around 10 core courses, listed below. Students must also complete two social science electives, and a coherent sequence of four natural science courses for a minimum total of 60 credits and should maintain an overall B+ average with no lower than a B- in any of the core classes. In addition to course work, students participate in integrative seminars (U9200/01) throughout the first three years of the program, and complete the MA thesis and take an Orals Exam (leading to the MPhil Degree), in addition to presenting and defending a PhD dissertation.

Due to the unique interdisciplinary content of the program, students entering with a master’s degree earned at Columbia or elsewhere are still required to complete all MA and MPhil course requirements and examinations.

Credit transfers for previously held degrees, while rare, may be accorded at the discretion of the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS).

1. Advising

Students must establish an advisor, who generally serves as the first reader of the MA thesis, before the end of the fourth semester, ideally earlier. The DGS and Program Faculty will assist in helping select an advisor and an advisory committee. The committee ideally comprises of 2-3 members, one of whom is the academic advisor and must be a member of the SIPA faculty. The remaining research advisors can be from other Columbia schools and departments and/or from a different university. An advisor from a different university cannot be the academic advisor. The advisory committee should include faculty whose expertise covers the social and natural sciences. These advisors will generally make up both your Orals and Dissertation Committees.

For the first one or (at most) two academic years the DGS will have the role of academic advisor. The role of the advisor is to guide and monitor research progress including reporting to GSAS on the progress of the student, sitting in on Orals and Defense committees, selecting an appropriate advisor/s, and other associated duties. All first and second years are required to attend two advising sessions per semester, once at the start of the semester and again toward the end of the semester prior to registration, with the DGS, Program Coordinator, and Econ Advisor. Upper year students will be required to meet once per semester. These meetings will be arranged by the Program Coordinator. Once an advisor has been chosen, students are expected to meet with him/her on a regular basis.

2. Service Requirements

In addition to the completion of the requirements for the MA and the MPhil, students have to fulfill a teaching and research requirement. This entails six semesters of work as a Teaching Fellow (TF) or a Graduate Research Fellow (GRF), as assigned by the Program Coordinator. Students typically serve as TAs in SIPA master-level courses as well as a few undergraduate courses. Students who secure external fellowship funding may reduce this requirement with the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies, but in all cases every student must TA at least two semesters. TA/RA assignments for the following academic year are generally released in late May or early June.

Please note that given the program’s large teaching commitments, and limited Research Assistantship opportunities, it is preferable that students only act as Research Assistants for one academic year.

3. Sixth Year

The PhD in sustainable development is designed and supported as a five-year program. It is recognized that some students may need to extend their studies for all or part of a sixth year. While this can be accommodated administratively, students cannot assume that funds will be available to support a sixth year of study, and they are urged to make efforts to secure fellowship support or obtain funds through their advisors or from outside sources. A list of awards and fellowships pertinent to the program can be requested from the Program Coordinator.

Sixth year extensions may be granted as exceptions and must not be assumed.

You must fulfill a total of 60 credits from the following: Sustainable Development (21 credits), Economics (16 credits), one course is Qualitative Analysis (3 credits), Natural Sciences (9 credits), Social Science (6 credits), and one elective (3 credits). This coursework (with the exception of 2 of the 6 semesters of SDEV U9200/01, which are completed in the 3rd year) is ideally completed within the first four semesters of the Program.

Sustainable Development: 21 credits

Course #	Course Name	Pts
1	SDEV U9200/01 (*)	Sustainable Development Seminar (6 semesters)	9
2	SDEV U9240	Human Ecology	4
3	SDEV U9245	Environment and Resource Economics	3
4	SDEV U6240	Environmental Science for Sustainable Development	4
5	SDEV U9248	Collective Action in Global Sustainable Development	3

SDEV course descriptions can be found here.

Please note that as the program grows, those courses, with the exception of the seminar, that count toward the 22 SDEV credits required may change. Please consult with the DGS or Program Coordinator should you have questions regarding coursework to fulfill the SDEV requirement.

(*)Two of three required sections are completed in the third year.

Economics: 16 credits

Prior to the start of the first academic year, all incoming students are required to participate in an intensive Summer Econ Math Camp. Entry into all first year econ courses requires passing the Math Camp final exam. Students who do not pass the exam will postpone econ coursework to the following academic year and enroll in courses with content specific to the skill gaps of each students (ie: math methods or an undergrad/masters level econ course).

Any students who does poorly on the exam will be required to attend tutorng during the academic year.

Course #	Course Name	Semester Fulfilled	Pts
1	ECON G6211	Microeconomic Analysis I	1st	4
2	ECON G6210	Microecnomic Analysis II	2nd	4
3	ECON G6411	Intro to Econometrics I	1st	4
4	ECON G6412	Intro to Econometrics II	2nd	4

Quantitative Analysis: 3 credits

Natural Sciences: 9 credits

A total of 4 (*) natural sciences from any of the following departments: Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology (EEEB); Earth and Environmental Sciences (DEES); Environmental Health Sciences (EHS); Earth and Environmental Engineering (SEAS) or another DGS approved natural science department.

(*) SDEV U6240 counts as the 4th Natural Science course and is recorded under the SDEV section.

Social Sciences: 6 credits (can be completed in the 3rd year) 

Elective: 3 Credits

One course related to one's research that does not fall within the above categories or goes beyond the credits required for any of the above. DGS approval required.

Colloquium: All SDEV students are also encouraged to attend the weekly SDEV Colloquium during their first year and throughout the duration of the program. Colloquium is an opportunity for SDEV students to informally present their research projects and ideas, and recieve feedback from members of the program.

Ideally, the MA would be completed before the start of the fifth semester, however, given the heavy required course load in the 1st and 2nd years, this deadline can be extended up to, but not beyond, except in extreme circumstances, the start of the sixth semester.

The Master’s thesis should address a problem in sustainable development using data and/or theory together with methodologies from the core courses completed in the first two years of the program. The thesis consists of an article (around 30 pages long).

1. In concert with the DGS, a thesis advisor should be chosen and approved. You should be working with the advisor throughout the writing of the thesis.
2. A draft of the Masters paper should be submitted to the research advisor(s) for comments and feedback. Once all revisions have been completed, the thesis should be resubmitted for final approval by the advisor.
3. A copy of the thesis should then be submitted to the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS). Once the DGS approves, Program Coordinator should be notified for processing. Please note that on occassion an additional reader may be assigned by the DGS for a "second read." This is not unusual, and generally occus when the DGS is seeking comment from a reader more familiar with the research and/or subject matter.
4. Once the thesis has been approved by the DGS, you must complete the Application of Degree or Certificate form and return it to the Diploma Division, 210 Kent Hall. Please note that due dates for May and October conferral can be found on the Registrar's Office website. 

Please note that in addition to the completion of the MA thesis, to receive the degree, students are required to hold a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0, and complete all coursework and receive letter grades to replace all marks of Incompete (IN) or Credit Pending (CP), whether or not the course is required for the degree.

Job Market: It is important throughout the program to be considering the job market, ie: which academic market (for example, econ vs policy or natural science) you plan to go on, when you plan to go on the market, and the type of job you'd like to have once the program is complete (ie: academic vs private sector). You can find a suggested timeline here.

Ideally, the MPhil should be completed by the end of the sixth semester, and must be completed before beginning full-time work on the dissertation.

Students can begin examinations for the MPhil in Sustainable Development only after they have completed all core courses described above, the natural science course sequence and the social science elective sequence, as well as the MA thesis. In order to take the oral examinations for the M. Phil., students must also submit a dissertation prospectus. Examination of the prospectus and fields of scholarship are completed ideally by the end of the third year. 

1. Completion of the MA requirements described above with a minimum of 60 credits and a B+ average

2. Completion of all third-year required courses:

• Social Sciences: Two social science electives. 
• Elective Courses: Students can register for as many additional courses as they need after completion of their requirements. Continued participation in the Sustainable Development seminar is also required (students are required to register for the seminar in their first three years and are encouraged to attend throughout their tenure).

3. Completed at least 4 out of 6 semesters of service requirements (Teaching Fellow, TF or Graduate Research Fellow, GRF appointments). Students with outside funding need to complete a minimum of 2 TF appointments.

4. Fulfillment of requirements to prove competency in two research tools. Students should possess at least two research tools before starting the dissertation portion of this program.

• The first demonstrates an advanced understanding of quantitative methods, to be gained through the mandatory core courses in quantitative methods (Introduction to Econometrics I and II, and a third Quantitative Analysis course). 
• The other research tool should be appropriate to the student's dissertation work. In consultation with the student's academic advisers, this second tool could be fulfilled through a two-course sequence in GIS or other analytic modeling systems, or through a proficiency examination in a language that may be particularly important for understanding the literature of the student's chosen specialty, and selected with the approval of the academic adviser. English is not accepted as a foreign language in fulfillment of this requirement. 

5. Successful completion of the MPhil Qualifying Exams (Orals):

Students are eligible to take the qualifying examinations (Orals) for the MPhil at the end of their third year or early in their fourth year, and must take the exam before the end of the fourth academic year at the latest, after satisfactory completion of all required coursework, and having obtained a GPA not less than B+.

The Oral Examination is a student's opportunity to present his/her research ideas and, through the prospectus, to begin to guide research toward a strong and cohesive dissertation and, hopefully, an effective job market paper. The student are likely to have the attention of 3-4 experts in the field listening to students and his/her ideas and providing timely and constructive feedback to this extent again, take advantage of this time.

Below you will find a detailed, step-by-step, explanation of the orals process. Please note that parts I and III of the process are strict, however, the format of the examination itself (part II), including timing and, to a lesser extent, content, can be altered in consultation with your advisor and the DGS; It is, however, recommended that you adhere to the format as closely as possible.

The purpose of the exam is three-fold. One is, through examination of the dissertation prospectus/proposal prepared by the student, to assess whether the proposed can be carried out successfully and that a suitable dissertation would result. Second, the student must show that they have the training and ability to do the research they propose to do. Third, it must be shown that the dissertation research is salient to a critical issue or issues in the broad field of sustainable development.

The qualifying examinations takes up to two hours for the student to complete and up to 30 minutes for the committee to discuss the exam in the absence of the candidate. Below you will find a detailed, step-by-step, explanation of the orals process. Please note that parts I and III of the process are strict, however, the format of the examination itself (part II), including timing and, to a lesser extent, content, can be altered in consultation with your advisor. It is, however, recommended that you adhere to the format as closely as possible.

Part I: Pre-Oral Exam

• Submit your proposal to your adviser for approval. 
• Choose an examination committee of 3-4 individuals will be chosen in consultation with John Mutter, the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), and your advisor. This step should begin prior to adviser and DGS approval of the prospectus, if the prospectus is close to being complete and approved. Once the committee is chosen, they should be contacted at least five weeks prior to the exptected presentationm date to confirm their willingness to participate. Once you have selected your committee, please send the committee members’ names and covering fields to the Program Coordinator.

  The committee should be made up of the following: One or more members of the examination committee may be from outside SIPA. Except under extraordinary circumstances (COVID 19 restrictions, for instance) one member of the committee can contribute remotely. Please note that you are not permitted to choose your committee without consulting the DGS and your adviser:

  • With few exceptions, the DGS will be one member of the committee. To discuss alternatives, please contact the DGS and your adviser
  • One will be your major advisor
  • One faculty member must represent each of the following, which can be fulfilled by one of the above: social science, natural science, sustainable development, and (optional) your particular area of study.
• Submit dissertation prospectus to the DGS for approval:
  • The dissertation prospectus can be in the form of a regular size document or in the form of three separate but connected papers.
  • It needs to be distinct from the Masterʼs thesis, though it can build on the research done for it.
  • The prospectus should be apx 40 pages and cover the methods and objectives of the research projects. For those writing 3 papers, the prospectus should describe all three.
• Request reading lists from your committee members. There is no longer a SustDev specific reading list, however, you can contact your committee members to see if they have a reading list.
• Arrange a date/time for the exam. The Program Coordinator will work with your committee members to set a date and time, as well as booking a room. You should set aside 2.5 hours for the exam.

• Once approved by the DGS, distribute dissertation prospectus to your examination committee no less than three weeks prior to the Oral exam.

Part II: Oral Examination

•  Formal presentation of the dissertation prospectus/proposal, usually accompanied by a slide presentation (30-40 minutes)

• Questioning by committee can occur by interruption during the presentation or by a designated period of time following presentation of each section of the dissertation (30-40 minutes)
• The exam includes assessment of the proficiency in fields most relevant to the proposed research, from within the following three subjects (30-40 minutes).
  • Economics (e.g. development economics, environmental economics)
  • Natural science (e.g. hydrology, climatology) or engineering.
  • Sustainable development (the general, integrative field in which the relevant coursework and proposed research resides)
• Evaluation by committee members in absence of candidate.
• Recommendations to the student by the committee as to the results of their discussion. It is the role of the advisor to follow up and ensure that the committee recommendations are followed.

Part III: Post-Examination: Complete and submit the Application for MPhil form to the Program Coordinator for processing. Please note that due dates for May and October conferral dates can be found on the GSAS Dates and Deadlines page.

The Core faculty and the DGS will exercise their judgment in determining, on the basis of the student’s full record, whether he or she should be awarded an MPhil and advance to the PhD candidacy.

1. The PhD dissertation

The PhD dissertation will be on a social science topic in sustainable development. The social science research will be informed by an understanding of physical and natural science constraints and opportunities influencing economic development.

Students with a regional area of interest to their dissertation may wish to do research abroad, to conduct field studies, use archives, improve language skills, or confer with local experts. It is preferred that students make use of summers to conduct such research. Given this preference, requests for approval of summer courses and internships are generally denied.

Students who feel they require a longer period of field research or language training need the approval of their advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies.

2. PhD Defense

The dissertation defense is in some ways like "Orals on steroids" with the critical exception that the candidate for the degree has the upper hand.

Unlike Orals, this is not a test of your breadth and depth of knowledge, but a defense of what has resulted from your research. Since it is your research you are the person most familiar with it, and that is what gives you the upper hand. The emphasis is on what new contributions you have made to your field of study, so you need not elaborate on the methods you have used unless your work has resulted in the advancement of a method. You might get questions about methods or data etc, but you should focus on what you have achieved in your research that is genuinely new.

The defense begins with a presentation, typically with a PowerPoint or equivalent presentation, that can take as much as 45 minutes. Questions usually come at the end of each chapter (like Orals) or logical divisions of the work. Unlike Orals, the examining committee is not as discipline-based. The external committee member is chosen to ensure that someone on the committee is completely neutral, having not been involved with your progress as a student in any way, but who is familiar with your field of study. It is common for that person to be present by Skype. Please note that no more than two members of the defense committee can participate via Skype.

The defense takes no more than 2 hours with the candidate present. An additional 30 minutes is included for the committee to deliberate without the candidate present to determine the outcome (pass/minor revisions, incomplete/major revisions, or fail). The candidate is made aware of the outcome after that deliberation.

The following steps must be taken to complete the defense:

a. Candidates must consult with their advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies and Program Coordinator about scheduling the defense. 

b. The final examination will not be scheduled until the Director of Graduate Studies has recommended the dissertation for defense. A five-person examining committee will be appointed by the department and must be approved by GSAS. At least three of the members of the final defense committee must be inside examiners (holding a formal appointment or approved as a dissertation sponsor at SIPA), and at least one of the five must be an outside examiner. See definition of an “outside examiner” here.

In addition, at least three of the five examiners must be approved dissertation sponsors.

c. The DGS will then officially invite the examiners. Once the committee has been confirmed, the Program Coordinator should be notified and will begin the process of setting a date and reserving a room.

(Please note that students should not ask particular faculty members to serve on their defense committees, nor should they make final arrangements for the defense. These tasks should be completed by the DGS and/or Program Coordinator.)

d. The Application for Defense must be completed by the Candidate and the Director of Graduate Studies and submitted by the Program Coordinator to the GSAS Dissertation office.

e. Members of the PhD examining committee must be given a minimum of three weeks each to read the thesis, so the defense may comfortably be scheduled after distribution. Prior to this, the candidate must submit to the dissertation sponsor and DGS draft copies of the thesis, including figures, plates and tables for approval. Approval indicates only that the thesis as it stands or with revisions suggested by them is in good enough form to justify scheduling the defense.)

f. The candidate must see that outstanding fees or loans to the University are paid and make sure that he/she has fulfilled all other Departmental requirements.

g. After passing the final examination, the candidate must see to any minor revisions and their approval by the examining committee before final deposit. If major revisions were called for (a defense-vote of “incomplete”), these must be made and submitted within a stated period (usually no fewer than three months and no longer than one year from the date of the defense) to the committee members, whose approval will have to be certified in writing before the candidate can be recorded as having passed the final examination. From the time of the “pass” vote, the student has a maximum of six months to deposit the thesis.

h. Obtain approval to deposit your dissertation.  This is done using the Approval Card, given to you upon passing your defense. After your revisions are approved, the card must be signed by your sponsor, as well as your department Chair or program Director. These signatures allow you to deposit your dissertation. 

i. Deposit your dissertation with GSAS. This is the final step to earning the Ph.D. degree. Complete information regarding the deposit is available through the Deposit Gateway.

Please note that open defenses are no longer permitted by GSAS.

You can find further information on the GSAS process and policy for distribution, defense, and deposit of the defense here. Please note that due dates for May and October conferral dates can be found on the GSAS Dates and Deadlines page.

1. Time to Completion

The ideal time to degree for the sustainable development PhD is five years. Students are guaranteed funding through their fifth year, however, extensions beyond a fifth can be granted annually, but funding is not guaranteed. Once a student extends beyond the sixth year, with the excpetion of an approved Leave of Absence or Parental Accommodation, his/her progress is no longer satisfactory. A student who fails to maintain satisfactory progress will be advised of corrective steps to take, and be apprised of the consequences of failing to take those steps. A student who fails to maintain satisfactory progress after such a probationary period will have his/her candidacy terminated.

SIPA and GSAS consider progress to be minimally satisfactory when a student completes each of the requirements as follows:

1. M.A. degree within five semesters of full-time study
2. M.Phil. degree within eight semesters of full-time study
3. Dissertation prospectus or proposal must be successfully defended within eight semesters of first enrolling in the program
4. M.A./M.Phil./Ph.D. within 18 semesters or nine years of full-time study

Students who do not complete all requirements for the doctoral degree by the end of the ninth year (Nine Year Policy for Time to the PhD Degree) will no longer be considered Ph.D. degree candidates and will be notified accordingly in writing.

These time-to-degree requirements are the maximum registration for the M.A./M.Phil./Ph.D. in the Graduate School. Failure to comply with these requirements will indicate a lack of satisfactory academic progress toward the degree.

2. GPA and Incompletes

a. Students must also maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 within the program. The MA will not be granted if the GPA is below a 3.0. The cumulative GPA is derived from all courses in which a student has registered and received a letter grade (not P/F).

b. Students must not hold more than one mark of Incomplete at a time.

The PhD Program Committee is the primary governing body of the program and is chaired by the Director of Graduate Studies, Professor John Mutter, and includes Merit Janow, the Dean of SIPA, and a number of other members, including Professor Douglas Almond (SIPA and Econ), Professor Mark Cane (DEES and APAM), Professor Geoffrey Heal (Business School and SIPA), Professor Upmanu Lall (Engineering), Professor Jeff Sachs (Earth Institute), Professor Wolfram Schlenker (SIPA and Econ), and Tomara Aldrich the Sustainable Development Program Coordinator. This committee is responsible for all program oversight and management decisions including procedures for orals, defenses and curriculum issues.

In addition to the above committee, the following listed faculty have indicated their interest in the program including their willingness to advise students and teach in the program. These faculty members are drawn from SIPA and other departments and schools of Columbia University in order to fulfill the interdisciplinary needs of the program.

Given the variety of interests and eventual research areas pursued by SDEV students, the program has established a set of “Research Liaison” faculty who represent those areas most commonly of interest to the SDEV students. The role of these faculty is to act as advisors or “points of contact” once a student has expressed an inclination toward a specific field of research. These discipline areas include: Climate, Water and Engineering, Energy, Public Health, Urbanization, Transportation, Engineering, Ecology and Energy. Research Liaisons have been noted with an (*) in the faculty list below.

Jeffrey Sachs
Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University; Director, The Earth Institute; Co-Director, PhD in Sustainable Development; Economics
Research Interests: Development Economics, Agriculture/Agicultural Economics, Education, Health, Environment, Welfare, Development

John C. Mutter
Professor of International and Public Affairs; Director of Graduate Studies, PhD in Sustainable Development; Professor, Earth & Environmental Sciences
Research Interests: Science-based Issues in Sustainable Development, Natural Disasters

Douglas Almond
Professor of International and Public Affairs and Economics
Research Interests: China, Health Economics, Education, Environment

Scott Barrett
Lenfest Professor of Natural Resource Economics at SIPA and the Earth Institute
Research Interests: Global Institutions

Sandy Black
Professor of Economics and of International and Public Affairs
Research Interests: labor economics, education economics, intergenerational mobility, discrimination

Mark Cane
G. Unger Vetlesen Professor Emeritus of Earth and Climate Sciences and Professor Emeritus of Applied Physics and Applied Math; Special Research Scientist in the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Research Interests: Climate Change

Caroline Flammer
Professor of International and Public Affairs
Research Interests: Climate Change, Corporate Governance, Impact Investing, Innovation, Sustainable Finance Inequality and Global Health

Emanuele Gerratana
Lecturer in Discipline of International and Public Affairs
Research Interests: Microeconomic Theory: Game Theory and Contracts; Industrial Organization; Labor Economics

Geoff Heal
Paul Garret Professor of Public Policy and Business Responsibility, Donald C. Waite III Professor of Social Enterprise
Research Interests: Risk, Environmental Economics, Decision Making

(*) Jackie Klopp
Co-director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development 
Research Interests: sustainable transport, land use, accountability, air pollution, climate change, and data and technology

(*) Upmanu Lall
Alan and Carol Silberstein Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering (DEES) and of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics; Department Chair - DEES
Research Interests: Water, Climate Change, Environment, Natural Resource Management 

W. Bentley MacLeod
Professor of International and Public Affairs and Sami Mnaymneh Professor of Economics
Research Interests: Contract Theory

(*) Vijay Modi
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Research Interests: Environment, Energy Policy

(*) Shahid Naeem
E3B Professor, Chair of the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology
Research Interests: ecological and environmental consequences of biodiversity loss on ecosystems

Suresh Naidu
Associate Professor of Economics and International and Public Affairs
Research Interests: Development Economics, Labor Economics, Political Economy

Matt Neidell
Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, Mailman School of Public Health; Sustainable Development Job Placement Director
Research Interests: Big Data; Environmental Health

Dan Osgood
Research Scientist in the International Research Institute for Climate and Society
Research Interests: Climate Information & Financial Mechanisms, Insurance Design & Evaluation, Probabilistic Information in Decision-Making

Christian (Kiki) Pop-Eleches
Associate Professor of International and Public Affairs
Research Interests: Applied Microeconomics, Labor/Development, Demography

Bernard Salanié
Professor of Economics
Research Interests: Contract Theory, Insurance Economics, Labor Economics, Theoretical and Applied Econometrics

Wolfram Schlenker
Professor of International and Public Affairs
Research Interests: Agricultural Economics, Natural Resource Economics, Applied Microeconomics, Water, Environmental Economics, Climate Change

Elliot Sclar
Professor Architecture, Planning, and Preservation
Research Interests: Sustainable Urban Development, Transportation

(*) Richard Seager
Palisades Geophysical Institute/Lamont Research Professor, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Research Interests: Climate Variability, Climate Change Global Hydroclimate, Climate Dynamic Processes in the Atmosphere and Ocean

(*) Jeff Shaman
Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences
Research Interests: Environmental Determinants of Infectious Disease Transmission, Climate, Atmospheric Science and Hydrology, Biology

Jeff Shrader
Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs
Research Interests: environmental economics, labor economics

Rodrigo Soares
Lemann Professor of Brazilian Public Policy and International and Public Affairs
Research Interests: Development economics, ranging from labor, human capital, and demographic economics to institutions and crime

Joseph Stiglitz
University Professor, International Affairs, Business, and Economics
Research Interests: Economics of Information, Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard, Monetary Theory, Industrial Organization

Miguel Urquiola
Professor of International and Public Affairs and Economics
Research Interests: Applied Micro, Education, Development, Latin America

Eric Verhoogen
Professor of International and Public Affairs and Economics; Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, School of International and Public Affairs
Research Interests: Trade, Development and Labor Economics, Latin America

For a complete list of alumni placements, please visit the SIPA Job Placement page.

Saifedean Ammous, 2011

Dr. Saifedean Ammous is an economist and author of The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking, the first academic treatment of the economics of digital currencies.

He is the Founder and CEO of saifedean.com.

Sandra Aguilar, 2021

Sandra's research  lie primarily in understanding the consequences of environmental degradation and the challenges governments face in implementing policies in contexts with underlying structural inequalities or weak institutions. She is an Assistant Professor at the Universidad de los Andes- AP of Economics.

Francis Annan, 2018

Francis' research centers on development economics and microeconomic issues, with a focus on digital financial markets, insurance, and firms in sub-Saharan Africa, India, and the United States.

Francis is now an Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

Jesse Antilla-Hughes, 2012

Jesse's current research areas include: public health impacts of the climate; behavioral responses to new information about environmental risks; and determinants of the spread of environmental attitudes and ideas. He is an Associate Professor of Economics University of San Francisco.

Belinda Archibong, 2015

Belinda's research areas include development economics, political economy, economic history and environmental economics with an African regional focus. Belinda is an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at Barnard College.

Sandra Baquié, 2021

Sandra's main research research projects combine Economics with Natural Sciences to study human-environment interactions. They range from the study of antibiotic resistance to the analysis of resilience to natural disasters in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sandra is a Young Professional at the World Bank and an Economist specializing in Development, Environmental, and Health Economics.

Xiaojia Bao, 2013

Xiaojia's research fields include Applied Microeconomics, Environmental Economics, Public Economics, Development Economics. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics at University Xiamen.

Jessica Barnes, 2010

Dr. Barnes's research examines the culture and politics of resource use and environmental change. Jessica is an Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina in the Department of Geography.

Prabhat Barnwal, 2015

Prabhat research areas include Development Economics and Environmental and Energy Economics. He is now an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at Michigan State.

Aaron Baum, 2016

Aaron's research interests the organization and delivery of primary care, value-based payment models, quality of care, population health, and global health using econometric and statistical learning methods. Aaron is Analytics and Economics Lead at Waymark.

Steffen Bixby (nee Merte), 2017

Steffen Vice President is the Head of U.S. Climate Analytics at Iss | Institutional Shareholder Services

Mehdi Benatiya Andaloussi, 2019

Mehdi is Economist at the International Monetary Fund.

Kayleigh B Campbell, 2017

Kayleigh's research explores how transportation shapes cities and the lives of people in cities, from quantifying the impact of bike sharing on bus ridership in New York City, to measuring mobility and accessibility in Nairobi, to exploring how historical urban development shapes carbon dioxide emissions. Kayleigh is currently a Senior Transportation Economist at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. 

Zhihan Cui, 2021

Zhihan is a behavioral economist and social/personality psychologist focusing on reducing human biases and promoting prosocial behaviors. He is currently a Post-Doctoral Scholar, Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA.

Anthony D'Agostino, 2017

Anthony is a applied microeconomist with primary research interests in international development and the environment. He is now a Senior Researcher at Mathematica Policy Research.

Denyse Dookie, 2019

Denyse's research interests include evaluating and using climate information for decision-making and climate change adaptation and development.

Denyse is now a Research Officer  at the Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change & the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Eugenie Dugoua, 2018

Eugenie's is an environmental economist working on topics related to innovation, technological change and energy. Eugenie is now an Assistant Professor in Environmental Economics at the London School of Economics, Geography and Environment Department.

Marion Dumas, 2015

Marion's research focuses on the economic and social transformations needed to decarbonise the economy. She is now an Assistant Professorial Research Fellow, Grantham Research Institute, London School of Economics.

Pablo Egaña del Sol, 2016

Pablo's He conducts research on applied economics, focusing on human capital, green innovation, and entrepreneurship. He is currently is an Assistant Professor, the inaugural director of the Master in Sustainable Business at the School of Business at Universidad Adolfo Ibanez, Santiago, and Principal Researcher at the Millenium Center of Evolution of Work (MNEW).

Ram Mukul Fishman, 2011

Ram is a development and environment economist, whose research is focused on sustainable agriculture, water scarcity and climate change, with an emphasis on developing countries. His work employs a mix of field work, field experiments and the analysis of socio-economic and environmental data. He is a senior lecturer of Public Policy at Tel Aviv University and the director of the Nitsan lab for sustainable development.

Timothy Foreman, 2019

Tim works on the economic implications of climate change for labor supply, land use, and international conflict, and how these can be mitigated by policy. He is currently a Research Associate at Qatar Centre for Global Banking & Finance, King’s Business School, King’s College London

Eyal Frank, 2017

Eyal is an environmental economist who studies how economic activities reduce levels of natural capital, specifically in the form of biodiversity losses, and the effects this has on outcomes related to health, trade, and labor markets. He is an Assistant Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy and the Energy Policy Institute (EPIC) at the University of Chicago.

Habtamu Fuje, 2016

Habtamu is an Economist with a special interest in trade and labor economics, applied macroeconomics, climate change, and other macro-critical structural issues. He is now an Economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Matthew Harrington, 2022

Matt's research focuses on applications and properties of machine learning to hydrology. Matt is now an Applied Scientist at Amazon.

Solomon Hsiang, 2011

Solomon Hsiang directs the Global Policy Laboratory at Berkeley, where his team is integrating econometrics, spatial data science, and machine learning to answer questions that are central to rationally managing planetary resources--such as the economic value of the global climate, how the UN can fight wildlife poaching, the effectiveness of treaties governing the oceans, and whether satellites and AI can be combined to monitor the entire planet in real time. He is now an Associate Professor at UC Berkeley, Goldman School of Public Policy.

Josephiné Gantois

Josephine research combines statistical approaches and data from economics, ecology, remote sensing, and machine learning to assess and address humans’ ecological footprint in natural and agricultural landscapes. She is will begin work as an Assistant Professor at the UBC Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, Department of Land and Food Systems in June 2023.

Amir Jina, 2014

Amir's main research interests include Development economics; Environmental economics; Climate impacts; Climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Amir is and Assistant Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago.

Geoffrey Chi-Johnston, 2012

Geoffrey is a senior data scientist at Cruise Automation.

Jaehyun Jung, 2018

Jaehyun's research focuses on sustainable development, in particular, environmental problems and their adverse impacts on health in developing countries. He is an Assistant Professor of International Studies at Ewha Woman's University.
 

Booyuel Kim, 2014

Booyuel's research interests span health and education issues in the developing countries as well as in Korea. He is associate professor of Graduate School of Environmental Studies at Seoul National University.

Chandra Kiran Krishnamurthy, 2011

Chandra's work is on applying the tools of economics to three broad areas relating to "sustainability": improving management of natural resources; designing "better" electricity markets; dealing with urban-transportation-related challenges.

Chandra is currently an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Forest Economics, SLU, Umeå. I was previously employed as a researcher at the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics 

Stephanie Lackner, 2017

Stephanie's research interest are disasters and social and economic consequences of disasters, particularly earthquakes and other natural disasters. She holds a Master degree in Mathematics and used to work for the Austrian Federal Environment Agency. Before joining the program, she was involved in some research projects dealing with economic consequences of climate change and climate change adaptation in Austria as well as communal development in Kenya.

Stephanie is currently an Assistant Professor at School of Global and Public Affairs & Economics, Instituto de Empresa (IE University).

Kimberly Lai Oremus, 2017

Kimberly's current research is on the role of climate on fish populations and fishery management. She has also published work on U.S. fishery policy. 

Kimberly holds a Bachelors of Science from Stanford University in management science and engineering, and a Masters in Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University. She has previously worked with The Nature Conservancy and Natural Resources Defense Counsel on marine conservation. While at Columbia she led a workshop group on REDD-Plus (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) and presented a draft proposal for social and environmental safeguards at the 2011 UN Climate Change Conference in Bangkok.

Kimberly is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Deleware College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment.

Claire Palandri, 2022

Claire's research brings together the insights and methodological strengths of multiple disciplines to address such questions, and notably to study the animal farming system. She is deeply interested in the relation between humans and domesticated animals, and its position in the socio-ecological transition. Claire is currently a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Harris School of Public Policy.

Ruiwen Lee, 2020

Ruiwen researches environmental and energy economics using a wide range of data sources, including satellite imagery and survey data. Ruiwen’s professional experience includes economics and policy research at the Environmental Defense Fund, and political analysis at the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Affairs from Princeton University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the National University of Singapore.

Ruiwen is currently a researcher at the Environmental Market Solutions Lab, Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UC Santa Barbara.

Margaret MacLeod, 2009

Margaret's research focuses on human capital formation and transfer in developing economies, specifically, education as well as maternal and infant health. Drawing from the field of Labor Economics, her methodological focus has been on randomized and quasi- experiments.

Margaret holds a B.S. from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and has studied at Nanzan University and the Delhi School of Economics. She speaks French, Japanese, Hindi, and Gujarati.

Margaret is currently a foreign services officer at the US Department of State.

Geoff McCarney, 2018

Geoff is an experienced researcher in areas of environmental, natural resource and development economics. His interdisciplinary background has included research in both economics and climate science, with an integrating focus on issues of sustainabiility. His research has particularly been focussed on forestry and carbon management, as well as the impacts of climate variability on natural resource use, and he has published on issues of sustainable forest management and environmental policy relevant to Canada.

Geoff is currently an Assistant Professor, Environment and Development, School of International Development and Global Studies & Director of Research, The Smart Prosperity Institute, and the Institute of the Environment at University of Ottawa.

Gordon McCord, 2011

Gordon has varied interests, including economic growth and poverty reduction, the role of geography in economic dynamics, and the interaction of epidemiology and poverty (particularly in the case of malaria). Before beginning the program, he worked as a special assistant to Jeffrey Sachs at the Columbia Earth Institute and at the UN Millennium Project. During those years, Gordon had the opportunity to travel all over the world supporting Prof. Sachs both in research and in working with country governments and international organizations. Gordon grew up in Latin America and received his B.A. in Economics from Harvard University, where he focused on economic development and Latin American studies, and wrote an undergraduate thesis on the effects of rural road improvement on family incomes in rural Peru.

Gordon is an Associate Teaching Professor and Associate Deanat the University of California, San Diego in International Relations and Pacific Studies.

Kyle Meng, 2013

Kyle's research interests lie primarily in the economics of climate change drawing on tools from applied microeconomics, public economics, and industrial organization. In particular, Kyle's research focuses on the design and efficiency of climate policy, the economic impacts of climate change, and the treatment of climate uncertainty in economic modeling. Kyle also has complementary interests in carbon mitigation in China.

Prior to Columbia, Kyle was a research fellow at Environmental Defense Fund where, as a member of EDF’s China team, his research and advocacy focused on issues relating to China and the international climate negotiations. Kyle also led EDF’s efforts to reform the Clean Development Mechanism.

Kyle received his B.S.E. in environmental engineering at Princeton University where his undergraduate thesis examined opportunities for carbon capture and storage demonstration projects in China. The 2005 recipient of Princeton’s post-graduate Martin Dale Fellowship, Kyle conducted studies on Chinese environmental perceptions as a researcher at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He is currently a recipient of the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans.

Kyle is now an Associate Professor at the UC Santa Barbara, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management Department of Economics.

Anouch Missirian, 2020

Anouch studied Biology and Ecology at the Ecole normale supérieure in Paris, France, and Environmental Economics at AgroParisTech.

Anouch is primarily interested in how ecosystems and human societies (via their economic component) influence each other. Her current focus is on changes in ecosystem processes that result from changes in the use of agricultural land (e.g. intensification or expansion of pasture, cropland, developed areas, or forest), and the feedback effects of those changes on the economy. Other interests include: pesticides, (environmental) distorsions, human migrations.

Anouch is currently an ssistant Professor at Toulouse School of Economics.

Daiju Narita, 2008

Daiju's research interest is the interrelationship of technology and policy with regard to the global climate change problem. He completed his dissertation about potential economic impacts of the carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. In his dissertation research, he also analyzes the policy making mechanism on CCS, particularly the process of scientific assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

He has a M.Sc. and a B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Tokyo, where he studied long-range chemical transport of air pollutants (ozone in particular) over East Asia. After his Master’s study in Japan, he worked in the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology, where he was involved in national research funding and nuclear safety regulation. 

Daiju is now a Associate Professor in the School of Economics and Business Administration at Hokkaido University.

Nicole Ngo, 2013

Nicole received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Irvine with a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Earth and Environmental Science. Her focus is in urban air pollution, both indoor and outdoor, and understanding the cost behind strategies for mitigating pollutants.

For four summers she participated in the Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS) internship, where she worked at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Research at NCAR included examining marine policy and improving understanding of convective clouds through modeling. She is also interested in urban issues in growing cities in Sub-Saharan Africa and working with local communities to help resolve these problems. Through research and conversations at NCAR and Columbia University, she has a better understanding of the gaps in interdisciplinary work between economics and atmospheric science. Ultimately she wants to improve collaboration, as well as her understanding of the balance between these two disciplines in motivating policy, with emphasis on problems of urban air pollution.

Nicole is now an Associate Professor at University of Oregon in the Planning, Public Policy, and Management program.

Anisa Khadem Nwachuku, 2011

Anisa's focus while in the program was on public health. She recieved a National Science Foundation IGERT fellow in International Development and Globalization. Her research examined the relationship between vulnerability and sustainability particularly as it relates to health equity, resource management and materialism.

She previously conducted policy research for the World Health Organization, Results for Development, UNICEF, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, The Carter Center, the State Department, and the Program of African Studies at Northwestern University. She holds a B.A. from Northwestern University in International Development Policy.

At present, Anisa is a Senior COVID-19 Strategy Advisor at UNDP - United Nations Development Progam.

José Carlos Orihuela, 2010

A recipient of the CICR Empedocle Maffia Fellowship, José's doctoral dissertation examined the rise of the green state in Latin America by asking why green policy convergence takes place within institutional divergence in mineral-rich Chile and Peru. His research gives close attention to the critical role of policy-entrepreneurs at windows of opportunity and the evolving interplay of agency and structure. He is also involved in a research project with a group of scholars from the University of Oxford whose goal is to revisit the resource-curse hypothesis by comparing six cases of institutional development across Latin America and Africa.

José Carlos holds a B.A. in Economics from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru and an MPA in International Development from Harvard University. His research interests include the political economy of environmental conflict, green governance and resource-based development.

Currently, José Carlos is an Associate Professor of Economics at Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.

Mark Orrs, 2014

Mark's primary interest is African economic growth and development, with approaches from the perspectives of tropical agriculture and arid/semi-arid lands, gender and education, and child mortality.

He is co-author of two articles on HIV/AIDS stigma, which were published in major public health journals. The focus of Mark's dissertation was is on the effects of a sanitary towel distribution. In 2003, Mark earned a BS in Sociology from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. 

Mark is now an Associate Teaching Professor at Department of Engineering, Design & Society at the Colorado School of Mines.

Lily Parshall Watcher, 2010

Lily was a recipient of an NSF IGERT Fellowship in International Development and Globalization. She studied energy systems and policy, with a focus on the urban scale. She is interested in how cities use energy, why some cities are more efficient than others, and what cities can do to reduce fossil fuel consumption and address climate change. While at Columbia she worked on two projects. The first used spatial analysis to estimate urban energy consumption in U.S. cities, with policy implications for energy-efficient urban development and local energy governance. In the second, she developed a spatially explicit model of demand for heat and power in New York City buildings and determined the technical feasibility and relevant scales of distribution for several alternative technology options.

Additionally, she previously studied modeling national electricity grid expansion in Senegal and Kenya. She has conducted research for the International Energy Agency, the World Bank, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. She holds a B.A. in Earth and Environmental Science from Columbia University.

Currently, Lily Chief Financial Officer at Fresno Chaffee Zoo

James Rising, 2015

James' research interests revolve around a search for frameworks for grasping and modeling coupled environmental and human systems. He hopes to use new technologies to help communities act on those insights to mitigate climate change and promote social justice.

James previously taught assorted seminars at MIT's Experimental Study Group and electrical engineering at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. Until recently, he worked as a software developer, working with over a dozen companies on signal processing, social networks, and artificial intelligence projects.

James is now a Assistant Professor at Unviresity of Deleware, Earth, Ocean and Environment Program

Aly Sanoh, 2012

Aly has worked on cost and access modeling of electrification in Senegal. His research interests include African economic development, community-based rural development, energy resources and technologies, and rural infrastructures. He has done research on infrastructure provision and decentralization process in Mali.

Aly is from Guinea where he completed his Bachelor's degree in Applied Energy Studies from the University of Conakry in 1999. He obtained a Masters’ degree in Energy and Environmental Policy from the University of Delaware in 2006.

Aly is now working as a Data Analyst at the World Bank.

Charles Taylor, 2022

Charles' primary field is environmental economics and secondary field is health economics. His research interests include agriculture, land use, ecosystem services, and climate change. He is currently a S.V. Ciriacy-Wantrup Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley ARE. He will join the Harvard Kennedy School as an assistant professor.

Tse-Ling Teh, 2015

Ling's research interests are in public policy for the management of natural disasters. Tse-Ling received a Bachelor of Actuarial Studies (First class honours) and a Bachelor of Laws (First class honours) from the Australian National University (2006). An avid traveler, she has lived in many countries, most recently the Lao PDR working with the UNDP. Prior to resuming her studies, Tse-Ling was an actuarial analyst in the private sector.

Ling is now an Assistant Professor at Bond University, Bond Business School.

Anna Tompsett, 2014

Anna graduated with a first class M.Eng. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Imperial College London and the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid in 2004, and completed an MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development at the University of Cambridge in 2007.

Anna has consultancy experience in the UK in both water and structural engineering. Her overseas experience includes a year teaching high school Math and Physics in Uganda, and a year as an Engineers Without Borders UK volunteer, working on rural infrastructure projects in the Dadiya tribal lands of Gombe State, Nigeria, as well as involvement in improved-earthquake resistance adobe construction projects in El Salvador.

She has worked on research projects in Mali (using Landsat images to understand flood and agriculture patterns around Toya Millennium Village in the Niger Inland Delta) and in Bangladesh (as research assistant on a randomized field test of the impact of decentralization of decision-making in the provision of arsenic-safe water sources). Her research is broadly focused on understanding the interactions between different types of capital (physical, human, social, natural and financial).

Anna is now an Assistant Professor at Stockholm University in the Department of Economics.

Marta Vicarelli, 2011

Marta worked as a research assistant at the Center for Climate Systems Research at Columbia University. Since 2004, she has been a research fellow at the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

Her principal field of research is climate change and natural catastrophes risk management and financing. Her research interests focus on, the balance between the public and the private sector (e.g. insurance, re-insurance) in risk sharing and cost sharing for different risk reducing measures; possible partnerships between international organizations (such as, OECD, UN, World Bank, and UNDP), governments and the private sector; impacts of public policies on insurance (and re-insurance) decision making and market behavior; and the potential role that insurance can play in encouraging mitigation for actions that reduce the impacts of climate change.

She was also a contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report, Working Group II, investigating observed changes and responses in natural and managed systems and sectors. 

Thanks to a fellowship offered by the French Ministry of Education, Marta spent three years in France where she received a B.S. in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences from the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, and a Master’s of Environmental Economics from École Polytechnique.

Marta is now an Assistant Professor at University of MA, Amherst in the Department of Economics.

Ana Varela Varela, 2020

Ana's research broadly investigates interactions of environmental and urban systems using frameworks and tools from applied microeconomics, data science, and remote sensing. Ana holds a Master in City Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as degrees in Environmental Studies from Imperial College London, and in Civil Engineering from the University of A Coruña, Spain.

Ana is currently an Assistant Profesor at the Amsterdam School of Economics of the University of Amsterdam.

Jan von der Goltz, 2016

Jan's research interests are in development, health, and environmental economics.

Jan is now an Economist at World Bank.

Semee Yoon, 2015

Semee's research interests lie primarily in environmental and development economics on natural resource management and poverty alleviation in developing countries. She is also interested in climate change adaptation policies in developing countries. She serveed as a consultant for the Ethiopia division of Vision Care Service, an ophthalmic service providing NGO, and a project manager of the Project Malawi, a public health project on HIV/AIDS prevention program and maternal and child health program.

Semee obtained her B.A. in Economics with a special concentration in Sustainable Development in 2010 at Columbia University with a honors thesis on the impact of a new environmental regulation on the top Korean companies. Semee worked at Columbia as a research assistant on the similarities and differences between violent conflicts and natural disasters. In 2008, she worked on the development of evaluation indexes for Korean firms to prepare for risks presented by climate change at the Korea Environment Institute, and she was the only undergraduate representative of the Korea Energy Management Corporation at UNFCCC COP 14 in Poznan, Poland. She hopes to incorporate both environmental science and economics of sustainable development to provide practical policy implications, especially in developing countries. 

Semee is now an Assistant Professor in the Integrated Social Sciences Division, Underwood International College at Yonsei University.

Xueting (Sherry) Wang, 2021

Sherry's research interests include energy economics and industrial organization. She applies tools from IO to study market deregulation and dynamics with a specific interest in the electricity market. Her ongoing research focuses on the analysis of consumer choice in retail electricity market and the market impact of incorporating intermittent renewable generation into the grid.

She graduated from the National University of Singapore with a bachelor degree in Chemistry and Political Science, and a master’s degree in Public Policy.

Sherry will work as an Economist at Christensen Associates, Energy ConsultingChristensen Associates, Energy Consulting at the end of the summer.

Jason Wong, 2019

Jason is interested in the impact of technology and infrastructure in regional socioeconomic outcomes and environmental decision making. His dissertation focuses on improving individual carbon offsets, economic impacts of aviation connectivity, and climate change impacts on aviation. He also works on electricity infrastructure and energy poverty in India. In 2016-2017, he is a National Academies of Sciences Transportation Research Board Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Graduate Research Awardee. He won the 2017 Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching by Graduate Student Instructors, the highest teaching honor bestowed upon a graduate student at Columbia.

Jason is now an Assistant Professor of Economics at Occidetanl College..

Alice Tianbo Zhang, 2019

Alice is an environmental and energy economist studying the social costs and distributional impacts of large-scale infrastructure projects, with a particular focus on developing countries. More fundamentally, she is interested in tackling issues of environmental and social justice, especially as they relate to the disparities in employment, education and health of the disadvantaged and marginalized. Her job market paper uses the Three Gorges Dam in China as a natural experiment to provide the first estimates of the causal impact of dam-induced inundation on migration and labor market outcomes. She employs a variety of techniques that are multi-disciplinary in nature in her work, including applied econometrics, remote sensing and machine learning.

Alice is currently an Assistant Professor of Economics at Williams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics at Washington and Lee University.

Xiaojie Zhang, 2016

Xiaojie obtained her B.S in Agricultural Science and Technology and B.A. in Economics from University of Maryland- College Park in 2010. During her undergraduate study, she worked on various natural science projects, including molecular biology, plant pathology and soil science. She also conducted research on international agricultural technology transfer systems. Her honors thesis studied the gender gap of cotton productivity in Uganda in the framework of the World Bank Gender Action Plan.

Her research interests lie primarily on agriculture and community-based development in Africa. She hopes to weave environmental concerns and humanity research into project designs and public policies and to develop a social-economically and environmentally sustainable development approach.

Xiaojie is now a Consultant and McKinsey and Company.

Nan Zhong, 2015

Nan focuses on combined research on economic development and environmental policy.

Nan obtained her B.E. in Environmental Engineering and B.S. in Economics in 2009 from Tsinghua University of China. In 2008, she joined the on-going research project “An Analysis of Gasoline Tax Reform and its Implications in China” as a research assistant.

Nan is now an Assistant Professor at Xiamen University, Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics.