Department of Economics Convocation Ceremony
Order of Exercises
Procession
Faculty and Degree Candidates from the Department of Economics
1st Choice Music String Quartet
Welcome and Remarks
George Deltas
Economics Department Head
Keynote Speaker
Nichola Dyer
Department of Economics Alumna
Presentation of Doctor of Philosophy Candidates
Stefan Krasa
Faculty Director, PhD Program
Presentation of Master of Science Candidates
Ali Toossi
Associate Director, Master of Science in Policy Economics
Presentation of Department and Campus Honors
Bryan Buckley
Assistant Professor, Economics
Presentation of Bachelor of Science Candidates
David Albouy
Professor, Economics
Isaac DiIanni
Senior Lecturer of Economics
Conferral of Graduates
Wendy Heller
Executive Associate Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Keynote Speaker: Nichola Dyer (MS '86)
Nichola Dyer is an economist and innovative sustainability leader known for pushing boundaries and forging connections across disciplines and sectors. Founder/CEO of NJDyer Global Advisory and Senior Advisor to the Global Seaweed Coalition, she has led strategic global initiatives across a wide range of sectors and themes, including seaweed and aquaculture, food systems and food security, governance, and engagement of marginalized and vulnerable groups. During her 26 years of service at the World Bank Group, Nichola managed the $1.5 billion Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, developed greenfield operational engagements for excluded minorities and people with disabilities, led the ethics office, and established a new office in Gabon.
Nichola believes deeply in giving back. She has held leadership roles on several non-profit boards and chaired an education grant program for women from developing countries. In early 2026, she joined an all-female scientific expedition to Antarctica to advance knowledge of climate change and seaweeds in the south polar region.
She obtained her MSc in Economics at the University of Illinois.
Honors & Distinctions
Bronze Tablet
Peijie Dong
Leah Edelman
Danfeng Li
Valentina Mosca
Ritam Nandi
Luke Polcyn
Sareena Popatia
Khushee Shah
Xing Sun
Bomin Won
James Scholar Honors
Regan Coombes
Raghav Dinesh
Leah Edelman
Hunter Farnham
Jameson Huge
Manya Jaykrishna
Alex Koscielski
Jennifer Labak
Nitya Nair
Siena Navarro
Timothy Paul
Nathaniel Pham
Romina Pliner
Yashvardhan Rao
Angela Segura
Jeremy Septon
Sanjana Sudeep
Rama Tonpe
Shaoshao Xiong
Campus Honors Program
Hunter Farnham
Charles Huang
Valentina Mosca
Nitya Nair
Spencer Sadle
Phi Beta Kappa
Aryajit Das
Peijie Ding
Alex Koscielski
Henry Lester
Valentina Mosca
Michael Reeve
Sanzhar Sarsenbay
Luke Thorell
Yuran Wang
Summa Cum Laude
Peijie Ding (December 2025)
Nandi Ritam (December 2025)
Khushee Darshak Shah (December 2025)
Bomin Won (December 2025)
Cum Laude
Rui Hu (December 2025)
Michael Mlotek (August 2025)
Sareena Popatia (August 2025)
Department Distinction
Leyang Chen (August 2025)
Zhe Hong Lim (December 2025)
Omicron Delta Epsilon
Graduate
Mustafa Ilker Acar
Merve Gunes
Yuxin Xiao
Undergraduate
Victoria Boron
Carlos Xavier Cubas
Michelle Lee
Muyun (Vera) Leng
Sydney Meekma
Matvei Shevchenko
Arseniy Titov
Note: This program contains an unofficial list of honors candidates for graduation in May 2026 and August 2026 and a list of honors candidates who received degrees in May 2026 and December 2026. The list of May and August 2026 candidates is as accurate as possible. However, because of printing deadlines, the names of some honor recipients may not appear, while the names of honor candidates may appear even though they have not completed their degree requirements.
Graduates
Doctor of Philosophy — Economics
Degree Conferred August 2025
Francisco Cenerini
Public Policies and the Conservation of Environmental, Cultural and Agricultural Goods
Yiqiu Liu
Social Policy and the Politics of Health: Three Empirical Essays
Vinicius Okada Da Silva
Essays in Economics History and Long-run Development in Developing Countries
Alok Ranjan
Essays on Institutions and Inequality
Yifan Wang
Essays in Applied Microeconomics
Degree Conferred December 2025
Youning Chen
Essays on Empirical Industrial Organization
Yuqing Han
Essays in Applied Microeconomics: Effects of Environmental and Trade Policy Shocks
Degrees Conferred May 2026
Yoonhwan Kim
Essays in Labor Economics
Sunny (Xinyi) Liu
Shocks, Barriers, and Choices: Essays on Human Capital Investments
Cristhian Molina
Signals, Formulas, and Unintended Consequences: Essays on Higher Education in Chile
Sanghee Mun
Essays in Applied Microeconomics
Siho Park
Essays in Health Economics
Jaysa Rafi
Capital Flows, Debt Maturity, and the International Transmission of U.S. Monetary Policy
Pedro Simon
How Do Supply Chain Pressures Affect Monetary Policy Transmission?
Cihang Wang
Taxing Productions Networks: Trade, Misallocation and Vertical Integration
Callan Whamond
Under Construction: Dimensions of U.S. Housing Affordability
Master of Science — Policy Economics
Degrees Conferred December 2025
Chao Chen
Chen Chen
Lihan Chen
Chunfang Deng
Hanzhe Dong
Mengchen Duan
Adam Ernette
Jie Gao
Huiwen Gu
Chenrui He
Zhaoxuan Hu
Bei Hua
Hsiang Lee
Kun Li
Xinyan Li
Shuhan Liang
Xinhao Liu
Yuhan Liu
Hanqi Mo
Try Nugroho
Hector Ocampos Ibarra
Feiyu Pan
Yuanyuan Peng
Keyi Qian
Yuchen Shen
Tingsen Su
Wei Tan
Bangyan Tang
Yiming Tian
Letong Wang
Yanjun Wang
Xuyan Wu
Yuxin Xiao
Yiru Xue
Fangyu Yang
Xuanchi Zhang
Yancheng Zhang
Xiao Zheng
Chenghao Zhu
Zhen Zhu
Candidates for Degree, May 2026
Nasser Alarifi
Paulo De Moraes Pereira
Jianing Dong
Teuku Fadil
Linxuan Hao
Sara Hercules Nunez
Wentao Liao
Xiu Qi
Pedro Rangel
Bhargav Sampathkumaran
Yogie Soebagio
Xinyi Su
Qimeng Wang
Qihui Zhu
Candidates for Degree, August 2026
Mustafa Ilker Acar
Joy Akindulureni
Jinxuan Bao
Gang Chao
Jingcheng Chen
Zhongxu Chu
Ayse Gul Donmez
Qianqi Dou
Biruktawit Fekru
Anthony Lacognata
Sameer Pareba
Siti Saadah
Chongen Shu
Naciye Taskesen
Johanna Vazquez
Junyi Zhang
Ruoxuan Zhang
Bachelor of Science — Computer Science + Economics
Degrees Conferred August 2025
Dhivya Chari
Daniel Li
Qiaochu Sun
Michael Yudhistira
Ethan Zhang
Degrees Conferred December 2025
Ria Bawiskar
Stevan Dabizljevic
Peijie Ding
Nithilan Elangovan
Isaac Exposito
Gavin Hewawasam
Ayushi Kumar
Timothy Li
Yulin Lin
Andy Luo
Abbas Mirza
Akhilesh Mocharla
Ritam Nandi
Soham Phargade
Vivek Pothineni
Sourya Sappa
Sonika Tamilarasan
Rick Wang
Zhengkai Ye
Candidates for Degree, May 2026
Nalin Agrawal
Sulayman Ahmed
Shijie An
Chetan Boddeti
Yuvraj Chahal
Yunho Chang
Jiaxiang Chen
Sanhorn Chen
Yutong Chen
Sharvil Dahale
Madhavi Datt
Matthew Dermatoian
Raghav Dinesh
Adaeze Eze
Hunter Farnham
Rishabh Gaur
Harshit Gupta
Noah Han
Eric Hartman
Charles Huang
Pratham Inamdar
Tanvi Kamat
Japjeev Kaur
Rohan Kumar
Josephine Lee
Jing Li
Ziyang Lin
Ziyue Lin
Kevin Lu
Huliye Ma
Ethan Manivannan
Zoe Martinand
Nathan Melnikov
Kundan Mergu
Charles O'Neill
Siddharth Paul
Prasanna Premkumar
Damini Rana
Yashvardhan Rao
Talin Ray
Grace Ren
Lewen Shen
Youngjin Song
Matthew Stoklosinski
Dylan Subramanian
Evan Sun
Rama Tonpe
Pablo Vicencio
Ritika Vithani
Weston Walker
Haorui Wang
Yilin Wang
Ryan Wu
Jingxin Xiao
WeiCheng Xiao
Shaoshao Xiong
Xiangyu Yan
Jingyi Zhang
Sarah Zhao
Candidates for Degree, August 2026
Devansh Nandwana
Bachelor of Science — Econometrics & Quantitative Economics
Degrees Conferred, August 2025
Bilguun Boldchingis
Zi Huang
Jiayun Lu
Wuyu Zhang
Degrees Conferred, December 2025
Siddhant Agrawal
Faayez Akhtar
Haibo Che
Sijia Cui
William Falbe
Rui Hu
Jing Jin
Gayeon Kim
Yunsang Kwon
Shangcheng Li
Suoqianqian Li
Zhe Hong Lim
David Louie
John Powell
Hongyu Qi
Kevin Semchuk
Khushee Darshak Shah
Chae Yeon Song
Kabbir Sukhwani
Mingjuan Sun
Tejas Thandi
Aashi Tyagi
Jacob Varghese
Akshaya Venkatesh
Kaitai Zhao
Tong Zhao
Candidates for Degree, May 2026
Paul Adams
Beilin Bao
Jacob Bauschard
Sohan Bhungalia
Yuexun Cao
RouAn Chen
Joseph Chin
Tisha Chowdhury
Carlos Cubas
Manasi Darbha
Luke Doerrer
Jinglei Du
Jared Evans
Lingyu Feng
Jinxu Han
Tianyi Han
Charles Hardin
Yiwei Huang
Manya Jaykrishna
Yuxi Jiang
Deepaksh Kalra
Andrew Koczur
Alex Koscielski
Max Kouzmanoff
Nishant Kumar
Aadit Lakhani
Hoang Le
Muyun Leng
Bingqing Li
Man Ham Melvin Li
Wei Li
Yuxin Li
Minghao Liu
Yuxin Liu
Zichen Liu
Han Lyu
Saaniya Makandar
Santos Marchan
Sydney Meekma
Ashrita Mohanty
Ayesha Mohanty
Paul Muehlberg
Joshua Notini
Christopher O'Brien
Nathaniel Pham
Sourish Potdar
Rahul Prakash
Shuyu Qin
Brian Rosner
Dhruv Roy
Jack Sampey
Molly Sheahan
Siddhant Shroff
Christopher Song
Sanjana Sudeep
Weijie Sun
John Szalko
Ecaterina Tureac
Abhay Verma
Danyang Wang
Jiaqi Wang
Lingyue Wu
Brody Wyller
Fan Yang
Wenda Zhang
Candidates for Degree, August 2026
Andrew Koczur
Yufan Li
Zidong Yang
Bachelor of Arts — Economics
Degrees Conferred August 2025
Conner Adams
Avery Ahrendt
Brian Bernhardt
Martin Ceja
Leyang Chen
Griffin Goebeler
Yahir Gonzalez
William Hajjar
Emmet Henehan
Mark Hernandez
Yichi Hou
Danny Hua
Dhairya Kataria
Seunghwan Kim
Mitchell Leshchiner
Daoyuan Li
Yifan Li
Matija Marinkovich
Marc Mestanas
Michael Mlotek
Kennedy Muniz
Kavin Nagpal
Jiyeon Ok
Divit Patel
Sareena Popatia
Jason Rojas-Tellez
Bryan Roman
Hajin Shin
Carlos Sierra
Aidan Stephens
Wei Sung
Huanhao Tu
Hongyi Wang
Jialong Wang
Junbo Yang
Yunong Zhang
Zhexuan Zhao
Yunqing Zhu
Degrees Conferred December 2025
Meliha Aycicek
Shakyo Basu
Sagnik Chakraborty
Junlong Chen
Allen Chiu
Beomjo Choi
Diego Contreras
Tae Do
Asia Eddy
Ofelio Garcia
Pengcheng Guo
Jaeho Han
Dalton Hastings
Zichao He
Shanyi Hu
Hao-Hsuan Hung
Dylan Keiper
Eric Kornowske
Harang Lee
Boyi Li
Jingyi Li
Fengxing Liao
Fenghua Liu
Ruiqi Liu
Ruiqing Liu
Zhiyun Liu
Junze LU
Wen Ma
Kyjuan Martin
Nathaniel Martin
Evan McNeilly
Lillian Novosel
Carlos Ochoa
Ebunoluwa Oladipo
Diya Patel
Advika Phadnis
Pierce Romo
William Rooney
Peter Rybinski
Eduardo Sanchez
Zijian Shen
Dhaval Soni
Daysha Straight
Divya Sunkad
Jakub Szydlowski
Siyu Wang
Katarzyna Ward
Julius White
Bomin Won
Yurui Xu
Ke Yan
Dinglong Yu
Lidan Yu
Decheng Zhang
Hailu Zhang
Yuer Zhan
Candidates for Degree, May 2026
Ahmed Abbasi
Ava Abbott
Ifeoluwa Adeyinka
Marky Aguilar
Abdulrahman Almana
Benjamin Anderson
Gregory Argionis
Sergio Arias
Dana Arreguin
Yasmin Arreola
Allison Asbock
Conlin Audenaerd
Jessica Avalos
Matthew Babiarz
Benjamin Bailey
Zayd Bala
Yu Ban
Sohum Banerjee
Leila Beckovic
Brea Benson
Benediktas Bieliauskas
Thomas Boland
Victoria Boron
Yifei Cai
Anika Canamedi
Guanlin Chen
Minchen Chen
Ting Rui Chen
Yitian Chen
Yuchen Chen
Yehan Choi
Yeon Woo Choi
Joaquin Christoffel
Jalen Clark
Brendan Colgan
Regan Coombes
Maryfer Cortes
Rory Cronin
Everett Cruz
Zhuling Cui
Stanton Czerwinski
Karan Vatsal Dalmia
Aryajit Das
Kyler Daulton
Armani Diaz
Ryan Doherty
Yiming Dong
Alexander Dungill
Leah Edelman
Ryann Fagan
Paulina Filar
Connor Fitzpatrick
Maciej Flasza
Yiming Fu
Yukun Fu
Srikarthik Gandikota
Tomas Garen
Daniel Gerbasi
Benjamin Gersch
Marco Gonzalez
Julia Granchalek
Andrew Graue
Jacob Grimm
Jonathan Gulakowski
Shaoyi Guo
Tianyi Guo
Heejae Han
Rowdy Hannagan
Charles Harris
William Hawrylak
Junyi He
Joshua Hernandez
Weichao Hong
Kimberly Hoyt
Nan Hu
Leo Huang
Wenzhao Huang
Jameson Huge
Eric Hwang
Toluwani Ijisesan
Ella Jahn
Mark Jamil
Matylda Jamroz
Seunghwan Jang
Alexander Jelaca
Gabriela Jez
Zhixuan Jin
Jocelyn Johnstone
Lane Jones
Emma Joyce
Hao Kang
Seoyeong Kang
Aaryan Kanthamaneni
Haley Kharvari
Dongha Kim
Paul Kim
Kayla Kirkendall
Riley Klotz
Sarah Korpolinski
Jack Kramer
Jack Kwasniewski
Samantha Kwietniak
Mason Kwok
Jennifer Labak
Tisha Laiwalla
Annica Lao
Damia Larbes
Dayoung Lee
Justin Lee
Michelle Lee
Shinbi Lee
Tobias Lewis
Anran Li
Danfeng Li
Muzhi Li
Shuo Li
Yichen Li
Yunchuan Li
Zhenyang Li
Gaoxiang Liu
Kunpeng Liu
Yingchen Liu
Ziqi Liu
Maximus Lopez
Qinsheng Lu
Yanran Lu
Lauren Lubbe
Junhao Luo
Yixin Luo
Yunfei Ma
Connor MacAuley
Nikoletta Manoukarakis
Yinzhu Mao
Ivan Martinez
Patrick McDonough
Gavin Mechling
Jieyi Mei
Alexander Mendoza
Sarah Michalec
Benjamin Miralaeff
Aarushi Mittal
Valentina Mosca
Zohair Muqeem
Daniel Murphy
Benedict Mushimata
Guiqin Na
Nitya Nair
Nikhil Nambiar
Cayetano Nard
Martina Nava
Siena Navarro
Ethan Nguyen
Ethan Nievera
Joshua Novak
Shiying Pan
Yulin Pan
Marina Paniagua
Rohan Pareek
Rushi Patel
Shivani Patel
Timothy Paul
Jonathan Petro
Romina Pliner
Luke Polcyn
Chandana Poola
Jaya Punwani
Ke Qian
Brian Quintana
Sarah Rattigan
Jacob Razo
William Reeths
Robin Risasi
Ricardo Rodriguez Hernandez
Robert Rohner
Noah Rominger
Alexander Rose
Gavin Rose
Koby Rosiles Guzman
Guy Ryan
Luke Ryan
Spencer Sadler
Aviv Sagiv Schiamama
Angel Salcido
Alex Savkovic
David Schmelz
Yalixa Segundo
Angela Segura
Jeremy Septon
Matvei Shevchenko
Yuwen Shi
Saumya Singhal
Jacey Sola
Gabriel Stonor Saunders
Yingqi Su
Yizhou Su
Caijunyi Sun
Xing Sun
Arnav Suri
Muxin Tan
Sebastian Teves
John Thomas
Lauren Thompson
Peter Thompson
Luke Thorell
Aadit Tibrewala
Arseniy Titov
William Vignocchi
Sadhana Viswanathan
Alexandra Vlassakeva
Cole Vondersitt
Kexin Wang
Xingtai Wang
Yixuan Wang
Yuran Wang
Trevor Ward
Luke Welch
Taylah Whitmore
Aaron Wills
Jillian Wilson
Terence Wong
Siming Wu
Yingtong Wu
Yuzhou Wu
Xiao Xiao
Yuelin Xiao
Jiayi Xu
Bohao Yan
Deqing Yang
Jinzhou Yang
Mingda Yang
Qingzhi Yang
Ziruo Yang
Chongxi Ye
Lirong Ye
Cory Yoo
Xinheng Yu
Aaryanna Zapata
Haoyang Zhang
Lihuan Zhang
Lijing Zhang
Muzhou Zhang
Shiyi Zhang
Weiqian Zhang
Yan Zhang
Yiming Zhang
Yucheng Zhang
Ziheng Zhang
Zixu Zhang
Zixuan Zhang
Jingqi Zhao
Xuanhui Zhao
Xiangyu Zheng
Donghao Zhong
Chenbu Zhou
Honghan Zhou
Yunyi Zhou
Hangyu Zhu
Wenxuan Zhu
Yongkang Zhu
Yueyue Zhu
Tianlin Zuo
Candidates for Degree, August 2026
Tania Avila
LeVante Davenport
Armani Diaz
Ananmay Handa
Madison Hardamon
Destiny Herrera
Claire Kennedy
Maksymilian Kaminski
Claire Kennedy
Haoyang Li
Nikoletta Manoukarakis
Runkang Ni
Arjun Sahu
Christian Truong
"Hail to the Orange" Lyrics
Hail to the Orange
Hail to the Blue
Hail Alma Mater
Ever so true!
We love no other
So let our motto be
Victory, Illinois!
Varsity!
Note: This program contains an unofficial list of candidates for graduation in May 2026 and August 2026 and a list of graduates who received degrees in August 2025 and December 2025. The list of May and August 2026 candidates is as accurate as possible. However, because of printing deadlines, the names of some degree recipients may not appear, while the names of degree candidates may appear even though they have not completed their degree requirements.
The University’s official registry for the conferral of degrees is the Office of the Registrar, 901 W. Illinois St. Urbana, IL 61801.