Dipa Sarkar
Dipa completed her Ph.D. under the supervision of Professor Daniel Millimet in 2007 and joined the Department of Economics at the University of Louisiana, Monroe in Fall 2007 as an Assistant Professor. She then moved to the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in 2010 where she remains today. Since arriving at QUT, she has been promoted to Senior Lecturer (equivalent of Associate Professor in the US) and, in 2020, to Associate Professor (the equivalent of full Professor in the US). During her time at SMU, she received the Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship.
Dipa's primary areas of research are applied microeconometrics and behavioral economics. She has published in journals such as Labor Economics, Health Economics, Economic Inquiry, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Empirical Economics, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Economic Psychology, and Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics. In 2019, Dipa received the 2019 best paper prize in health economics awarded by the Australian Health Economics Society for her paper “What does attending early childhood program mean for child health in India?” published in Health Economics in 2017. She is also a frequent contributor to media such as The Conversation as well as Australian outlets including ABC News and other Australian radio.
A memorable moment for Dipa at SMU was being able to hold the Nobel medal conferred to Clive Granger and Robert Engle during their felicitation ceremony!
SMU laid the foundation of my academic life and current career as well as how I evolved as a person. Drawing on my experience at SMU provides a constant source of inspiration, from mentoring my PhD students to organizing conferences.
There was never a boring moment, and there was endless ‘firsts’ – delivering the first lecture, reading books on theology while working at the Bridwell library, mentoring high school students in Science camp at SMU, and getting to watch endless free movies from CMIT.
I remain grateful to all of my professors and other staff members who created a home away from home for us and provided a solid start to our careers.