CHAMPION SCHOLAR MICHAEL SHASHOUA
economics graduate student + water polo champion As goalie for the University of Pennsylvania’s strongest-ever club water polo team, Michael Shashoua played under a passionate, strategic coach who was a former member of the Italian national team. As a graduate student, Shashoua has a mentor who is one of the top economists in his field. The coach and the economist are the same person: Antonio Merlo, Rice’s new chair of the Department of Economics. When Merlo left Penn to elevate economics at Rice, he brought his goalie with him. At Rice, Shashoua, a former Fulbright scholar and four-time NCAA water polo champion, hopes to apply economic models to immigration policy, using IRS data to understand how immigrants in Houston make decisions and seek employment. “I am fascinated by the role of immigrants,” he said. “My father came to the U.S. after fleeing Iraq for Israel. He built a business and raised his family here. His experience showed me how people search for a common link.”
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