The Meiyu Li Memorial Scholarship in Economics

Meiyu Li was an outstanding PhD candidate who impressed all who knew her with her intelligence, generosity, enthusiasm and work ethic. Sadly, Meiyu passed away at the age of 27 in a car accident. During her studies at SFU, Meiyu was the grateful recipient of scholarships and awards, and on numerous occasions she told her parents that it was her wish to one day give back to the university by establishing a scholarship of her own. To honour this wish the Meiyu Li Memorial Scholarship in Economics will be established to create a lasting legacy that will support students.

Meiyu joined SFU Economics as an MA student in 2013 and quickly made a name for herself as an outstanding academic. She had been awarded both the department’s Herbert R. Grubel Award for top CGPA among graduating MA students, as well as the Richard G. Lipsey Award for top comprehensive exam results among PhD students. Her promising career was just beginning: specializing in time series econometrics, she had already produced two publications and was finishing the second round of revisions for her third publication to the prestigious Journal of Econometrics.

Brian Krauth, Department Chair of Economics recognizes the loss both to the field of economics as well as within our SFU community: “She was extremely active in presenting at conferences, regularly participated in hosting our seminar guests and was in general an exemplary contributor to scholarship. Meiyu was also an exemplary member of our community, always one of the first people to volunteer to help out with something. She was confident but quietly so, and I can’t remember seeing her without a smile on her face.”

The Meiyu Li Memorial Scholarship in Economics will support a scholarship for outstanding international graduate students, like Meiyu, who are pursuing research in the Department of Economics.