News
Azizbek Tokhirov Becomes First Recipient of Newly Established Stapleton Scholars Award
29 November, 2022
CERGE-EI and the CERGE-EI Foundation are pleased to announce the first ever recipient of the recently established Stapleton Scholars Award: Azizbek Tokhirov, a third-year student at CERGE-EI.
The award was made possible thanks to a generous donation from Craig Roberts Stapleton, member of the CERGE-EI Foundation board, former American Ambassador to the Czech Republic, and a long-term friend of CERGE-EI.
“I would like to thank Craig Roberts Stapleton, the CERGE-EI Foundation, and CERGE-EI for the opportunity to visit the top US academic institutions. Over the course of the mobility program, I plan to collect data for future projects, learn more about high-level research and policy practices, and present preliminary results to faculty members at the respective universities," said Azizbek upon receiving the news.
Azizbek Tokhirov (*1995) comes from Tashkent, the Republic of Uzbekistan. He is a third-year student at CERGE-EI, and will be headed this Spring Semester to the University of Chicago‘s Harris School of Public Policy to work on Gallup data. He also intends to work with Gallup data at the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton University. His host at the University of Chicago will be Professor Austin Wright.
Between 2013 and 2016, Azizbek studied Economics with Finance at the Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT). While studying at WIUT, Azizbek won the Dean's List Academic Achievement Award in 2015, and his student paper ranked among the top 4 papers in the 2016 WIUT New Academic Talent competition. Also in 2016, Azizbek participated in CERGE-EI's NET (New Economic Talent) competition for bachelor’s and master's students with his paper Remittances and Expenditure Behavior of the Household Members Left Behind: Evidence from Tajikistan. While his paper was not among the finalists, he received special recognition from the Evaluation Committee for this work. In Spring 2016, he graduated from WIUT with a First Class Honours Bachelor of Science degree. His Bachelor’s thesis examined the impact of remittances for migrant-sending communities of Central Asia.
Following his bachelor studies, Azizbek gained practical experience working as a data analyst in Uzbekistan for almost a year before he received a fully funded scholarship for Master’s studies in Fall 2017, enabling him to dedicate the following two years to the multi-disciplinary degree program International Development Studies at the GLODEP Consortium of Palacký University Olomouc (Czech Republic), Université Clermont Auvergne (France) and Università di Pavia (Italy). He earned an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree in Spring 2019. While studying for the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree, Azizbek participated in another round of CERGE-EI’s NET competition in 2018, making the shortlist with his paper Poverty Effects of Remittances on the Left Behinds in Albania.
In Spring 2019, Azizbek applied for the PhD in Economics program at CERGE-EI, hoping to deepen his understanding of empirical economics as well as theoretical economics. In June 2022, Azizbek received one of the three Second-Year Research Fellowships awarded annually by CERGE-EI to the best research proposals submitted by PhD in Economics students. The purpose of the fellowship is to facilitate the transition from course work to dissertation research and help students to fully concentrate on the first steps of their research career. Azizbek won the first prize of CZK 55,000 for his proposal to study the effect that an ethnic conflict, which shaped the recent history of Central Asia, has had on labor market outcomes and other dimensions. In addition to the intrinsic relevance of the research question, the proposal displays very promising prospects for causal identification and a high quality of empirical analysis.
In Azizbek’s own words, he is eager to become an exemplary specialist who can make a difference: “Upon earning the [PhD] degree, I intend to contribute to the progress of Uzbekistan through the medium of scientific scrutiny and pedagogy. I do not want to separate research analysis from teaching, I plan to be part of projects that can bring social surplus and to transfer the accumulated knowledge to future generations. I do not expect the effect to be immediate, but I anticipate that my efforts will lead to long-term positive shifts. I am not afraid of facing challenges and I believe that I have the right mindset to follow this demanding plan.“
The recently established Stapleton Scholars Award aims to enable top-performing CERGE-EI students to pursue mobility research stays at top US universities. The Award augments students’ funding to USD 2,500 per month (for up to 5 months); it covers round-trip, economy class airfare directly to and from Prague to the city of the host institution, up to the sum of USD 1,100. The Award also covers health insurance in the USA and US institutional fees.
The selected Stapleton Scholars will spend one week of their mobility at Princeton University, Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies, where they will have an opportunity to engage with several distinguished faculty members. The stay begins with a one-day visit to NYC, where the Scholars will meet Ambassador Stapleton and other distinguished guests. The NYC trip travel costs and accommodation are funded by the scholarship. The Award also provides funding for one conference/workshop within the USA, covering travel and costs up to a total of USD 500. The Award further provides funding towards the selected scholars' stipend at CERGE-EI for one term after their return from the US, allowing the scholars to be exempt from assistantship work and focus fully on their research.
Scholarship applications are to be submitted to the CERGE-EI Mobility Committee in March and October of each year. Suitable candidates will be identified and final selection made by April 15 and November 15, respectively.
