Meet the 2021 SFU Economics graduate award winners

2021 - Jonathan Puigvert

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Jonathan Puigvert is a third-year PhD student in Economics at Simon Fraser University and joined the program in August of 2019. He completed his B.A. in Economics at the Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economica (CIDE) in Mexico, and his Master’s in Economics from the University of British Columbia (UBC). Jonathan worked at the Bank of Mexico and the Central Bank of Mexico, in which he was involved in research projects including competition in the payment sector, the study of labor participation in Mexico, and the effects of hurricanes in economic activity. Jonathan’s current research focuses on the application of machine learning methods in financial economics and time series. 

2021 - Samuel Basoah

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After graduating from the University of Ghana, Samuel Basoah joined the master's in economics program at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in 2019. Eager to expand his knowledge in economics and further his education, Samuel moved on to pursue his PhD with SFU Economics after completing the MA program with distinction within a year. His areas of specialization are macroeconomics (experimental and computational), applied-micro-econometrics, monetary, labor, and international finance. He is also interested in the economics of space particularly how the cryptocurrency market affects space exploration, and how countries can attain sustainable debt. 

2021 - Shirleen Manzur

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Shirleen joined SFU in 2015 in the MA program, and then began her PhD in 2016. Coming from Bangladesh, a developing nation, Shirleen's research is broadly focused on development economics. She is interested in political systems and how they impact economic growth, as well as policy issues that directly impact low income populations. Her dissertation focuses on the structural estimation of within household resource shares to provide insight on gender inequality and children's well-being. She also has research in political economy, particularly on the factors leading to democratic erosion. She is a Councillor in the SFU Graduate Student Society and acts as the graduate student representative in the Economics Working Environment Committee. She enjoys recreational sports like badminton, basketball and kickboxing. She plans to build a career in applied research, aimed at improving welfare of underprivileged communities and low income households.

2021 - Thinh Dao

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I had not been in an academic environment for a long time before joining the Economics MA program at SFU. Getting back to study after 10 years of working is a real challenge for me however I enjoyed the program a lot. I am interested in mathematics and its application in economics and I am completely satisfied with what I gained from the program. It was not only about maths, economics, but I also had an opportunity to start learning two programming languages. I would like to give my special thanks to professors and staff in the Economics department for their warm treatment and great support so far. It is a big pity that I had no chance to have a footprint on SFU due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, SFU is on the top of my list to visit when I have the chance. 

2021 - Jingru (Kelly) Yang

During my undergraduate studies, I initially focused on pursuing accounting and finance at SFU's Beedie School of Business. When I became a research assistant to assistant professor Ray Zhang, I started looking more closely at the foundations of accounting and financial theory. This subsequently led to my decision to pursue my master's degree in economics so that I could find the answer to this question in my mind.

I am very grateful to Brian Krauth, Alex Karaivanov, Lisa Agosti and Azam Bhatti for their advice and help before applying because I did not have much prior economic and mathematical background. Thanks to all the professors for their support, which gave me the opportunity to enrich my insights in the field of economics. I plan to take the Chinese government department examination and join the public service. I hope I can use what I have learned flexibly in my daily life.

2021 - Huiqian Song

Huiqian Song is a PhD student in economics at SFU. She earned both BA and MA at Simon Fraser University. Her research interests lie primarily in applied economics with more focus on institutional economics and property rights. The awarded paper, working with Liang Diao, shows that the land cadastre enhances land value, thereby encouraging landowners to prevent fires by cultivating more fire-resistant crops. She is also working on a project related to Canadian legal institutions and crimes. In addition, she enjoys teaching and helping students find their interests and achieve good performance in economics.