EPIC pre-doctoral fellow Tomoki Nishiyama has been awarded the inaugural Brandt Research Fellowship. The new fellowship supports exemplary EPIC pre-doctoral fellows, early career researchers working with faculty on projects in energy and environmental economics, markets, and policy. The award is supported by a generous gift from EPIC Advisory Group Member Ted Brandt, MBA ’87, the founder and CEO of Marathon Capital, a Chicago-based advisory firm dedicated to servicing the clean economy.
“The Brandt Research Fellowship Program is an important investment in the next generation of energy economists,” says Michael Greenstone, the Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and director of EPIC. “By giving promising young researchers the opportunity to contribute to cutting-edge research and learn directly from leading faculty, the program will strengthen the research we produce while helping shape the scholars who will carry the field forward. We’re thrilled to announce our first Brandt Research Fellow and excited to see where this program will lead.”
Nishiyama is working with UChicago Harris Public Policy Professor Koichiro Ito on how to develop sustainable electricity markets. He takes an empirical approach, analyzing data on consumer and firm behavior to uncover the hidden drivers behind environmental problems and design better allocation mechanisms. He is currently analyzing the Chilean electricity market, specifically looking at how the construction of transmission lines and regulatory changes affect market competition among power plants and manufacturing firms’ electricity demand.
“Tomoki is an integral part of our research team,” says Ito. “We have benefited enormously from his rigor, dedication and intellectual curiosity. He is deeply deserving of this fellowship, and I am excited to see how his work will help shape the future of energy economics.”
Nishiyama previously received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Tokyo in Japan. After one year of graduate study in economics at the University of Tokyo, he joined EPIC as a pre-doctoral research professional in fall 2025.
“I am honored to become the inaugural Brandt Research Fellow,” Nishiyama said. “I enjoy collaborating with Koichiro and his coauthors on developing models that capture the motivating empirical evidence effectively. Through this fellowship, I would like to advance my economic research skills to become an independent researcher.”
As a Brandt Research Fellow, Nishiyama will join other pre-doctoral fellows who work at EPIC for one or two years as a bridge between college and a doctoral program. These fellowships provide young researchers with an in-depth understanding of the research process while undergoing intensive career development in a tight-knit community. The fellows gain hands-on experience in a full-time work environment under the guidance of EPIC-affiliated faculty and researchers. Fellows leave with the strong support network of professors, postdoctoral scholars, and colleagues who helped advance their research skills, knowledge base, and career paths. Additionally, their contributions help faculty accelerate the pace of discovery, expand the scope of their research, and address some of the most pressing challenges in climate and energy policy.
EPIC’s outstanding pre-doctoral fellows have gone on to some of the world’s top PhD programs. Six pre-doctoral fellows have won prestigious and highly-competitive National Science Foundation grants.
Learn more about the Pre-Doctoral Fellowships program here.