17³Ô¹ÏÍøÔÚÏß

Hello, alumni, students, faculty, and friends.

I am sorry to share the very sad news that Professor Ian McAllister passed away on September 22. Ian taught at 17³Ô¹ÏÍøÔÚÏß from 1971 up until five days before his death; he spent his career dedicated to the students of 17³Ô¹ÏÍøÔÚÏß. This is a huge loss to his family, to 17³Ô¹ÏÍøÔÚÏß, and to the world.

This Fall 2026 issue of EconMatters includes profiles of four of our outstanding alumni: Katherine Ryan (BSc (Honours) 2014), Darren Byers (MDE 1998), Saroja Kuruganty (MDE 2005), and Paola Beneras (MDE 2014, PhD 2021); we thank them for sharing their experiences. Our Research Spotlight shines a light on the work of our faculty members Dr. Mevlude Akbulut-Yuksel and Dr. Casey Warman.

I would like to recognize several recent Economics award winners.

- Reshma Joseph and Ernest Owusu-Ansah were awarded the U.L.G. Rao Memorial Prize in Economics for writing the best master’s theses of the 2025-26 academic year.

- The MA Prize was awarded to Abdelaziz Elherbawy and the MDE Prize was awarded to Christopher Ajayi.

- Mavis Darling was awarded the University Medal in Economics for 2026 as recognition for being the top honours student graduating in 2026. Mavis was also awarded the Avery Prize for the highest standing among graduates of baccalaureate programs.

- Zihao Sheng was awarded the Economics Teaching Assistant Award for 2025-26.

- Economics undergraduate student prizes for 2025-26 were awarded to: Lakshana Saranyan (Principles of Economics Prize), Mohan Zhang (Economic Theory Prize), Angela Batnasan (Econometrics Prize), Ryan Higgins and Sophie Maillet-Purves (Anonymous Prize), Angela Batnasan (International Student Essay Prize), Tiana Kirkpatrick (Honours Thesis Poster Award), and Charlotte Milley (Economics Honours Thesis Award).

- Jean-Phillippe Bourgeois was awarded the Department of Economics Teaching Award.

I would also like to announce that four of our faculty members were granted tenure or promotion on July 1. Dr. Nicholas Lawson and Dr. Alvaro Parra were granted tenure and promoted to Associate Professor; Dr. Christos Ntantamis was promoted to Senior Instructor; and Dr. Weina Zhou was promoted to Full Professor.

Great news: Zihao Sheng passed his PhD thesis defence on September 29. Congratulations to Dr. Sheng!

We very much appreciate the alumni, families, and friends who have donated to our scholarship and bursary funds (through giving.dal.ca) to help us support student excellence as well as financial need. Budget cuts are affecting our ability to provide graduate scholarships, and we are grateful for every donation, especially to our bursary funds, the Christian Marfels Memorial Bursary and the Alasdair Sinclair Memorial Bursary. Thank you for your generosity! I am pleased to announce the creation of a new bursary created by Paola Beneras, the Mark Higgins PhD Bursary in Economics. You can read more in Paola’s alumni profile, and donate here: http://giving.dal.ca/markhiggins.

Stay in touch by following our LinkedIn page:

All the best,

Tess Cyrus

Associate Professor and Chair