We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Stone Centre MA Thesis Fellowship program and to welcome our first cohort of fellows. This program is designed to support their research aligned with the Stone Centre’s mission, exploring the causes and consequences of inequality, and the search for possible remedies. Each fellowship provides $18,000 in support, giving students the time and resources to pursue their projects in depth.
As part of the program and to enhance their experience, MA Thesis Fellows will work closely with faculty members during their second year. Faculty will supervise and support the students’ research, inviting them to contribute as research assistants on active projects. Based on this collaborative work, each student will develop a paper to meet the thesis requirement of the MA program.
We look forward working with these outstanding MA students and see their contributions to the Stone Centre community!
Meet our 2025/26 MA Thesis Fellows:
Dr. Brian Wall is an academic emergency physician with over 15 years of clinical experience across three Canadian provinces. He has taught hundreds of medical students, residents, and physicians at the bedside and in the classroom at the Universities of Toronto, Ottawa, and British Columbia. Driven to understand and improve Canada’s strained emergency care system, Dr. Wall is combining his frontline clinical expertise with economic training at the Vancouver School of Economics to help inform health policy and system design. His past research includes high-impact clinical work on capnography use in procedural sedation. His current projects—conducted in partnership with the Vancouver Island Health Authority and the BC Ministry of Health—focus on physician payment models and the relationship between primary care access and emergency department utilization. Dr. Wall lives in Victoria, BC, with his partner, two young sons, and their dog.
Brian is working with Stone Centre Faculty Affiliate, Sam Norris.
Danny Xiufeng Lu is a Master’s student in Economics at the University of British Columbia. His research interests span political economy, economic history, and behavioural economics. Currently, he is completing his Master’s thesis, which examines the historical and cultural roots of contemporary wealth and income inequality focusing on developing countries—particularly in Africa. Before joining the MA program at UBC, Danny earned his Honours Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Alberta, where he also gained policy experience at the provincial and federal levels of government.
Danny is working with Stone Centre Faculty Affiliate, Nathan Nunn.