Economics students, faculty honored at annual awards ceremony

Faculty and graduate and undergraduate students in the Department of Economics were honored for outstanding achievements at the Rice Initiative for the Study of Economics’ (RISE) third annual awards ceremony April 24.

Criteria for student honors varied by award and included grade point average or other academic achievement. Teaching awards were determined by student evaluations.

Faculty Awards

Dean Antonio Merlo speaks at the RISE award ceremony. Photo by Jeff Fitlow.

Malcolm Gillis Award for Distinction in Undergraduate Teaching in Economics
Yunmi Kong

Ralph O’Connor Award for Distinction in Teaching and Research in Economics
Mallesh Pai

Undergraduate Awards

Honors in Economics
Rafael Butiong
Evan Flack
Malvika Govil
Seung Jae Han
Victoria Johnson
Seohee Kim
Hendrik Lintel
Albert Nabiullin

Malcolm Gillis Award in Economics
Mengjia Liu

Malcolm Gillis Award in Mathematical Economic Analysis
Seohee Kim

Michael D. Maher RISE Award in Economics
Mai Pham

RISE Award in Mathematical Economic Analysis
Yan Li

TEI Tax Scholar (Tax Executives Institute Undergraduate Award)
Victoria Johnson

Ronald Soligo Public Policy Essay Prize
Rafael Butiong

Peter Mieszkowski Prize for Honors Program Research
Seung Jae Han
Victoria Johnson

Gaston Rimlinger Prize
Evan Flack

Byron Pope Award for Outstanding Performance in Masters of Energy Economics Awards
Shatha Alnaji
Nash Whitney

Doctoral Awards

RISE award recipients. Photo by Jeff Fitlow.

Maria Esther and Carlos Linares Award for Best Performance in Economics First-Year Courses
Sen Lu

Robin C. Sickles Award for Best Performance in Econometrics Qualifying Exam
Hira Farooqi
Kelly Neill

Rica and Tony Ligeralde Fellowship Award for Best Performance in Economic Theory Qualifying Exam
Hira Farooqi
Kelly Neill

Dagobert L. Brito Award for Best Performance by a Recitation Instructor in Economics
James Chen

John R. Kelly Graduate Student Teaching Prize in Economics
Paul Barton

TEI Tax Scholar (Tax Executives Institute Award) 
Kelly Neill

George R. Zodrow Award for Best Performance in a Workshop
Bolun Li
Atara Oliver

Timothy and Katharine Gunning Award for Best Third-Year Economics Paper
Bolun Li
Atara Oliver

Jennifer and Purvez Captain Award for Outstanding Economics Dissertation
Mark Agerton
Nick Frazier

For more information on RISE, visit https://economics.rice.edu/rise.