2019 TO 2020

Pedro Amaral is Associate Professor at the Department of Economics at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil. He is Chair of the Latin America Division of Regional Studies Association (RSA) and Deputy Secretary of the Brazilian National Association of Graduate Studies and Research in Urban and Regional Planning (ANPUR).

Yandong Cao is a PhD student in Economics at the Renmin University of China. His research focuses on firm efficiency and innovation, industrial development, land policy and applied econometrics. He has a BA in Physics from Lanzhou University and an MA in Economics from the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC (National Academy of Governance).

Hengyu Gu is a PhD student in regional economics at Peking University. His research interests include population geography, urban computation, regional economic analysis and urban planning. Before starting his PhD, he completed a bachelor's degree in geographic information science (GIS) at South China Normal University. He applies spatial econometrics to empirical studies -- so far, he has published over 20 articles. At present, he is working on a project re. the National Academy of Innovation Strategy about the intention of highly skilled workers to migrate in China.

Firat Gündem, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at Dokuz Eylül University in the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Economics in Izmir, Turkey.

Robert is an Assistant Professor in Sociology at the University of Michigan -- Ann Arbor. He received his PhD in Sociology and Social Policy from Harvard University. His research focuses on the economic outcomes of people and places: why some cities and regions do well while others do poorly, and when individuals are and are not able to benefit from economic growth. Before starting his PhD he completed a Masters in City Planning and worked as a consultant on fair lending regulation.

Caterina Schiavoni is a PhD student in Econometrics at Maastricht University and Statistics Netherlands. Her research focuses on time series methods for the production of official statistics, and on panel data methods to model air pollutants. Before starting her PhD, she completed an internship in data analysis at the United Nations Refugee Agency. She has a M.Sc. in Econometrics from Maastricht University, and a B.Sc. in Statistics from Sapienza – Università di Roma (Italy).

Luciana Soares Luz do Amaral is an Associate Professor in the Department of Demography (Cedeplar/FACE) at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil. Her research interests include demography of education, economic demography,  and the intersection between population dynamics and public policy.