Graduation Ceremony for the 2024-2026 Cohorts
On November 5, 2026, we celebrated the graduates from the 2024–2026 cohorts of the Research Master’s in Economics and Business Data Science. Surrounded by family, friends, supervisors, and staff, they were recognized for their academic achievements and personal growth over the two-year program through personal speeches and videos from their supervisors.
Perotti Modigliani Thesis Prize 2026
Ekaterina Siniakova received the Tinbergen Institute Perotti Modigliani Thesis Prize 2026 for her thesis, "Motivated Interpretation of Feedback Informativeness." She is the first recipient of the newly established annual prize. Ekaterina was supervised by research fellow Thomas Buser (University of Amsterdam).
Whether people see relative performance feedback on one task informative for other tasks - and whether that judgment shifts depending on whether the news is good or bad - remains largely unexplored. Ekatrina studied this question in a two-stage online experiment. You will be able to read more about her thesis and research in an upcoming news item.
Valedictorians
Students Jiayuan (Joanne) Ren and Luca Tommasi, both cum laude, gave valedictorian speeches, reflecting on their own experiences and those of their fellow students. They had words of encouragement and spoke about the responsibilities for the future. Jiayuan on earlier generations, such as her mothers, who had fewer opportunities to employ. She also spoke about the female role models whose example has helped shape the opportunities available to her and other students today.
Teaching awards
Lecturers and teaching assistants were recognized with the Lecturer of the Year and Teaching Assistant of the Year awards. Students selected the awardees in recognition of their outstanding teaching.
Lecturers of the Year
- First-year Economics courses: Jasmine Xiao (University of Amsterdam), Financial Frictions.
- First-year Business Data Science course: Markus Leitner (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Integer Linear Programming
- Second-year Economics and Business Data Science courses: Owen O'Donnell (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Health Economics
- Early Career Teacher: Nick Koning (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Advanced Econometrics I
Teaching Assistants of the Year
- Business Data Science course: Leon Czarnecki, Simulation Analysis & Optimization
- Economics course: Francesco Serra, Micro 1
- Joint Economics and Business Data Science course: Luca Tommasi, Econometrics 1
The ceremony concluded with a reception, giving graduates, families, and supervisors a chance to celbrate together after two years of rigorous study. We wish all our graduates the best of luck with their PhD studies and future careers.
Congratulations to all our graduates, we are very proud of you.