Nikolai M. Cook

Dr. Nikolai M. Cook serves as an Assistant Professor in the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University, specializing in high-impact economic research. He completed his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Ottawa under Professor Abel Brodeur, winner of the 2020 Polanyi Prize.

His doctoral training at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Social Sciences established him within a distinguished lineage of Polanyi Prize recipients, becoming the third member of that institution's Economics Department to receive this honor following Professors Brodeur (2020) and Roland Pongou (2013).

Dr. Cook's research program addresses two critical frontiers in economics:

• Environmental Economic Impacts: Quantifying socioeconomic consequences of climate change and air pollution through rigorous empirical analysis
• Research Integrity: Pioneering solutions to the credibility crisis in economic methodology and reproducibility

His scholarly contributions earned the prestigious 2024 John Charles Polanyi Prize in Economics, recognizing work that delivers concrete solutions to societal challenges through rigorous scientific approaches.