Dr. Ariel BenYishay is a development economist specializing in empirical microeconomics, geospatial impact evaluations, and randomized control trials (RCTs). He heads AidData’s Research and Evaluation Unit, and oversees the AidData Research Consortium, some 120 academics at 50 universities worldwide. His current research focuses on the impacts of foreign aid programs on agriculture and deforestation as well as human health and social capital. He leads several large-scale RCTs, including one in the Philippines and several in Malawi.

Dr. Kunwar K. Singh is a Senior Geospatial Scientist at AidData and an Affiliate Faculty at the Center for Geospatial Analysis at William & Mary. His research is at the nexus of land change and geospatial sciences where he investigates how the terrestrial system can support future land conversions and resource consumption under a changing climate. He uses geospatial data and technologies supplemented with data from ground observations and weather stations to develop workflows for large spatiotemporal data processing, assess broad-scale land change and its implications to natural resources, and measure outcomes of new adaptations to diminishing natural resources. He also serves as a science advisor to the NASA DEVELOP program at the Center for Geospatial Research at the University of Georgia.