Akhil Rao joined the Economics faculty as an Assistant Professor in the fall of 2019. His primary research interests are in environmental and computational economics, with a focus on outer space and simulation modeling.

Akhil received his PhD from the University of Colorado Boulder, and BS in Business Administration from the University of California, Riverside. His dissertation research focused on the economic dynamics of orbit use and applying that understanding to policy design and integrated assessment modeling. He teaches courses in statistics and environmental economics.