People

Opportunities

Prospective undergraduate and graduate students, if you are interested in learning more about us and/or working with us, please email Dr. Nemati about your background and possible research interests and an updated resume or CV.

Prospective postdocs are always welcome to email Dr. Nemati. Ideal candidates will have experience conducting quantitative analysis, with backgrounds in economics, agricultural economics, environmental science, public policy, or related fields.

Mehdi Nemati, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Environmental Economics & Policy

University of California, Riverside
School of Public Policy
Interdisciplinary South 4109
900 University Ave., Riverside, CA 92521
Phone: (951) 827-9368 Email: mehdin@ucr.edu

Postdoctoral Scholars

Daniel Crespo

Postdoctoral Scholar

University of California, Riverside
School of Public Policy
Email:

Daniel Crespo is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the University of California, Riverside in the Department of Economic Analysis. He completed an MSc degree in Economics and a degree in Economics from the University of Zaragoza. He has a Ph.D. scholarship at the Department of Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics, Centro de Investigación y Technología Agroalimentaria, CITA-Government of Aragon. He is interested in investigating environmental and natural resources economics, environmental and agricultural policies, water modeling and optimization, water management, water scarcity and droughts, and climate change.

Daniel Crespo's research is focused on upstream-downstream conflicts, integration of ecosystems health and environmental benefits in water management, and the analysis of the reliability of water systems in the face of more frequent, longer-lasting, and more intense drought events.

Graduate Student Researchers

Divya Prakash

MPP Student, School of Public Policy

University of California, Riverside
School of Public Policy
Email: dprak004@ucr.edu

Divya Prakash is a Master's Public Policy student at the University of California, Riverside (UCR). Before joining UCR, he worked as a researcher in India with the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) - Ministry of External Affairs, and JustJobs Network. Prakash received his Master's in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), India, and a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Dehli, India.

Research Interests: Water Economics, Climate Change

Deidre Reyes

MPP Student, School of Public Policy

University of California, Riverside
School of Public Policy
Email: dreye060@ucr.edu

Idiana Salam

MPP Student, School of Public Policy

University of California, Riverside
School of Public Policy
Email: isala007@ucr.edu

Puneet Singhania

MSCS Student, Bourns College of Engineering

University of California, Riverside
BCOE
Email: psing088@ucr.edu

Visiting Scholars

Munib Inam

Ph.D Student
University of Kentucky
Department of Agricultural Economics

Zhuanlin Wang

Peking University
Department of Economics

Undergraduates

Jesse James Ordona

Undergraduate, Computer Science with Business Applications

University of California, Riverside
Bourns College of Engineering
Email: jordo018@ucr.edu

Lab Alumni

Mahdi Asgari

Postdoctoral Scholar

University of California, Riverside
School of Public Policy

Saman Banafti

Ph.D. Student, Economics

University of California, Riverside
Department of Economics
Email: sbana001@ucr.edu

Master of Arts, Economics -
University of Texas at Austin
Bachelor of Arts, Economics -
University of California, Riverside

Juhee Lee

Postdoctoral Scholar

University of California, Riverside
School of Public Policy
Email: juheel@ucr.edu

Caroline Morkel

Sustainability Research Fellow

University of Kentucky
Summer 2019

Current Position: Legislative Bill Clerk

Stephen Morkel

Undergraduate

Niloufar Nasrollahzadeh

MPP Student, School of Public Policy

University of California, Riverside
School of Public Policy
Email: nnasr001@ucr.edu

Bachelor of Arts, Economics -
University of California, Riverside

Research Interests: Water Economics, Health Policy

Oladipo Obembe

Postdoctoral Scholar

University of California, Riverside
School of Public Policy
Email:

Obembe Oladipo is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the School of Public Policy at the University of California, Riverside, California. Oladipo was a postdoctoral research associate at the College of Agriculture, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, Arkansas before joining the School of Public Policy. Oladipo's areas of interest include:

• Land and water resource management
• Production economics
• Risk management
• Farmers' responsiveness to different government conservation programs and incentives.

His research has been published in PloS One, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, and Journal of Environmental Management. He has two forthcoming papers in the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Agricultural Economics. Oladipo received his Ph.D. in Economics from the Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, in 2019.

Darun Seethammagari

Undergraduate, Computer Science

University of California, Riverside
2018 - 2020

Current Position: Software Development Engineer at Amazon

Dat Tran

Postdoctoral Scholar

University of California, Riverside
School of Public Policy

Grace Trujilo

Undergraduate

Reginald Wong

Undergraduate, Political Science

University of California, Riverside
2018 - 2019

Current Position: Financial Analyst at Raytheon Technologies

Isaiah Wright

MPP Student, School of Public Policy

University of California, Riverside
School of Public Policy
Email: iwrig001@ucr.edu

Bachelor of Arts, Economics -
University of California, Riverside

Research Interests: Water Economics, Urban Planning and Development