PhD Awards
With the help of generous donors, we award outstanding graduate students in research and teaching.
Browse opportunities to donate to the department.
Our students also win awards across campus (like Winemiller and Dissertation Year Fellowship) and beyond.
For excellent graduate students, this award has recently gone to Sofia Baker (2025), Amanda Unverferth (2025), John Christopher Gillon (2025), JR Funk (2023), Rachel Volmert (2023), Nabi Arjmandi (2022), Wei Zhao (2022), Duan Zhang (2021), and Tabitha Chikhladze (2020).
For excellence in graduate study, this award has recently gone to Amanda Unverferth (2024), Brendan Cirillo (2023), Tabitha Chikhladze (2022), and Moenes Mellouli (2021).
For academic merit of students fluent in Korean and/or studying the Korean economy, this award has recently gone to Jeonghyun Kim (2022), Seonyong Kim (2021), Joonhong Ahn (2019), and Kyungsik Nam (2017).
For policy-relevant empirical work in labor economics, this award has recently gone to Ataur Rahaman (2025), Fangda Wang (2021), Cheng Qian (2020), Yang An (2019), Zixin "Silvia" Liu (2019), Xiqian "Cecilia" Wang (2018), Wei Kong (2017), Diyi Li (2017), Li Tan (2016), and Weiwei Wu (2016).
For excellence in graduate study, this award has recently gone to Tabitha Chikhladze (2023) and Brookelyn Adams (2021).
For excellence in graduate study, this award has recently gone to Wei Zhao (2023), Yong Feng (2023), and William Park (2021).
For strong progress toward significant research contributions, this award has recently gone to Xin Liu (2019), Sanha Noh (2018), Li Tan (2017), Xingpeng (Catherine) Wei (2017), and Taehwan Kim (2016).
For excellence in teaching, this award has recently gone to Zhiyang "David" You (2019), Lonnie Hofmann (2018), Taehwan Kim (2017), and Xueli Cao (2016).
For performance in first-year courses and qualifying exams, this award has recently gone to Qian "Joe" Wu (2019), Fangda Wang (2018), Xin Liu (2017), Cheng Qian (2017), and Heon Lee (2016).