Welcome New Doctoral Students

We are delighted to welcome the following doctoral students to our Ph.D. program in Fall 2025.

Farahnaz Faiz joins us from Paris, where she completed a master’s degree in economics at Université Paris-Saclay. Originally from Afghanistan, she earned her bachelor’s degree in finance from The American College of Greece in Athens. Her research interests include development economics, environmental economics, economic history, and gender equality.

Yi Han is from China. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of International Business and Economics and a master's degree from Washington University in St. Louis. Her primary research interest is macroeconomics.

Tingyuan Li joins us from China, where she earned a bachelor's degree in Marketing from the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics and a master's degree in Economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her primary research interest is econometrics.

Abbigayle Mills joins the program from the University of Missouri – Columbia, where she earned both her B.S. in Economics (2024) and M.A. in Economics (2025). During her time there, she served as a graduate teaching assistant for Principles of Microeconomics and worked as a contract researcher with the PRiME Center at Saint Louis University. Her research interests lie in applied microeconomics and health economics.

Nima Nikopour holds an M.A. in Economics from California State University, Fullerton, where he worked as a research assistant and lectured in undergraduate macroeconomics. His research interests include macroeconomics, financial economics, and machine learning.

Dulce Perez is a first-generation college student from the University of Alabama at Birmingham where she earned her B.S. in Economics and B.S. in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics. Her primary areas of interest are in econometrics and machine learning.

Nicholas (Nick) Smith earned his BBA in Economics and Finance from the University of Georgia. He served as a management consultant for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention here in Atlanta, supporting research in the National Center for Environmental Health. His research interests lie in applied microeconomics, with a focus on health and environmental topics. 

Zhihao (Owen) Xu is originally from Zhejiang, China. His research interests include macroeconomics, production networks, monetary policy, and industrial policy. Prior to joining Emory, he completed an M.S. in Economics at Purdue University and earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics in China.