THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
PhD Student Awards
The Martin and Margaret Lee Prizes in Economics were named by John Lee ’68 in honor of his parents. Each prize is given to the highest scores on the First-Year Core Exams.
2025-26 Recipients
Highest Score Earned on the Theory of Income Exam
Highest Score Earned on the Price Theory Exam
Highest Score Earned on the Empirical Analysis Exam
2024-25 Recipients
Highest Score Earned on the Theory of Income Exam
Highest Score Earned on the Price Theory Exam
- Sean McMahon (Booth)
- Matthew Neils
- Kyunghee Oh
Highest Score Earned on the Empirical Analysis Exam
2023-24 Recipients
Highest Score Earned on the Theory of Income Exam
Highest Score Earned on the Price Theory Exam
Highest Score Earned on the Empirical Analysis Exam
2022-23 Recipients
Highest Score Earned on the Theory of Income Exam
Highest Score Earned on the Price Theory Exam
Highest Score Earned on the Quantitative Methods Exam
2021-22 Recipients
Highest Score Earned on the Theory of Income Exam
Highest Score Earned on the Price Theory Exam
Highest Score Earned on the Quantitative Methods Exam
2020-21 Recipients
Highest Score Earned on the Theory of Income Exam
Highest Score Earned on the Price Theory Exam
Highest Score Earned on the Quantitative Methods Exam
2019-20 Recipients
Highest Score Earned on the Theory of Income Exam
Highest Score Earned on the Price Theory Exam
Highest Score Earned on the Quantitative Methods Exam
The George S. Tolley Prize was created to recognize a third-year doctoral student whose research paper demonstrates the potential for the impact of economic analysis on policy.
2025-26 Recipient
- Ragini Jain for "Female Sterilization and India’s Fertility Decline"
2024-25 Recipient
- Ishira Shrivatsa for "College Credit Policies and Student Outcomes"
2023-24 Recipient
- Craig Chikis for "Trade and Decelerating Reallocation"
2022-23 Recipient
- Haruka Uchida for "What Do Names Reveal? Impacts of Blind Evaluations on Composition and Quality"
2021-22 Recipients
- Thomas Hierons for “External Costs of City Traffic”
- Jordan Rosenthal-Kay for “Local Minimum Wages and Welfare”
2020-21 Recipient
- Alexei Oskolkov for “Exchange Rate Policy and Heterogeneity in Small Open Economies”
The Yiran Fan Memorial Prize is named for the late PhD student and is presented in admiration of his generous spirit and outstanding dedication. This prize is awarded to a student nominated by their peers who best personifies establishing an open and nurturing environment in the fields of economic dynamics, macroeconomics, or financial economics.
2025-26 Recipient
2024-25 Recipient
2023-24 Recipient
2022-23 Recipient
2021-22 Recipients
2020-21 Recipient
The Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award recognizes teaching assistants (TAs) for excellence in undergraduate instruction. Recipients are nominated by members of the undergraduate student body.
2025-26 Recipients
2024-25 Recipients
2022-23 Recipients
2021-22 Recipients
2020-21 Recipients
Provost's Dissertation Completion Fellowship
Recipients of the University of Chicago's highly competitive Provost Dissertation Fellowship are expected to complete their dissertation within the award's duration.
2026 Recipients
SSD Michael and Ling Markovitz Dissertation Completion Fellowship
The Division of the Social Sciences' Markovitz Dissertation Fellowship provides awards to students whose topic explores some aspect of the linkages and influences between social and economic behavior.
2026 Recipients
Stigler Center PhD Dissertation Award
The George J. Stigler Center at Chicago Booth provides awards to University of Chicago PhD students in their third, fourth, or fifth year who are in the advanced phases of a dissertation about political economy, regulation, or the various forms of subversion of competition by special interest groups.
2026 Recipient
American Bar Foundation/UChicago Doctoral Fellowship in Law and Social Science
2026 Recipient
Ana Vasilj, a JD candidate and PhD candidate in Economics, was selected to be an 2026 American Bar Foundation (ABF) Doctoral Fellow. She was chosen from a highly competitive pool of applicants for her impressive empirical and interdisciplinary research proposal at the intersection of law and social science. During the fellowship, Vasilj will receive funding support and research mentorship from ABF researchers while exploring how governments can design fairer, less distortionary tax systems.
Read the announcement on americanbarfoundation.org.
SSD Benjamin Bloom Dissertation Completion Fellowship
UChicagoGRAD PhD Advance Internship Program Award
2024 Recipient
Sofia Shchukina, a PhD student in the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics, was awarded funding for the 2023-24 academic year as part of UChicagoGRAD's PhD Advance internship program for her work with NPR's Planet Money.
The PhD Advance program supports students in building new skills and applying their advanced-degree training in an area of professional interest in academia, industry, nonprofits, or government. The internships are student driven and engage students’ academic work. With coaching from UChicagoGRAD, PhD students create their own projects based on their specific interests and needs. They receive a $6,000 stipend for an internship lasting 300 hours.
The PhD Advance program prioritizes applicants who design customized, project-based internships. Project-based internships are those that engage the intern in a coherent set of responsibilities that progressively build toward a specific deliverable or outcome. Internships involving unrelated, ad-hoc tasks are not considered project-based opportunities. The program also gives preference to internship projects at organizations at which the applicant has no previous affiliation.
For more information about the program and to apply, visit grad.uchicago.edu.