The Centre and the Chair, in their desire to promote frontier research of relevance for Spain and the UK, welcomes the Autumn Term's LSE-Miguel Dols Fellows.
Giulia Bonazzi
Giulia is a second-year Ph.D. student in the joint doctoral programme Resources for the New Public Administration at the University of Milano-Bicocca and the University of Padova (Italy). Her research interests include public policy analysis and evaluation, local and regional development, collaborative governance, and democratic processes. Her current research focuses on collaborative governance in local development policies, examining how these approaches influence both the capacity of local administrations and the dynamics of cooperation among actors involved in territorial development processes. More specifically, her work explores two interconnected dimensions. First, how capacity-building initiatives can strengthen local administrative capacities for the management of collaborative governance arrangements. Second, whether collaborative governance mechanisms contribute to the creation of new connections, relationships, and forms of collaboration among stakeholders within local contexts. Her methodological expertise combines qualitative research methods and text analysis with econometric approaches to analyse institutional dynamics and policy implementation processes.
Muzamil Farooq
Muzamil is a doctoral researcher specialising in regional innovation, economic geography, and sustainability transitions. Based at the Centre for Innovation Research, University of Stavanger, he is Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) doctoral fellow within the European SUNSET Doctoral Network. His research examines the role of imaginaries and visions in shaping the futures. Muzamil combines qualitative and interpretive methods, including critical discourse analysis and elite interviews, with computational text mining of large datasets such as patent records and academic publications. His past research at SPRU-Science Policy Research Unit focused on critical synergies between transition studies and mission-oriented innovation policies. He completed his MSc in Science and Technology Policy at the University of Sussex, where he was awarded a Commonwealth Masters Scholarship by the FCDO,UK and holds a further masters in innovation and entrepreneurship and a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from India. At the Centre for Innovation Research, he founded and co-hosts The RegInno Podcast.
Prof. Canfei He
Dr. Canfei He is a full professor in economic geography at Peking University. He earned his Ph.D. degree in geography from Arizona State University in 2001. He is a vice president of Chinese Geographical Society and the Chair, RSA China Division. He is a corresponding editor of Urban Studies, co-editor of Growth and Change and an editorial board member of more than 10 international journals, including Economic Geography and Progress in Economic Geography. His research interests include industrial geography, environmental economic geography and evolutionary economic geography in China. He has authored or co-authored 20 books in Chinese and 4 books in English and published around 150 papers in international journals. He was listed by Elsevier as one of the most cited researchers in China for many consecutive years (2014-2026) and recognized in World’s top 2% Scientists. He was granted the best service award of Regional Studies Association in 2025 and a fellow of Regional Studies Association (FeRSA) in 2026.
Dr. Yennesit Palacios Valencia
Yennesit is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Valladolid in Spain. She holds a PhD in Human Rights and Development from Pablo de Olavide University in Seville. Additionally, she has earned a Master’s Degree in Constitutional Law from the Centre for Political and Constitutional Studies in Madrid, which operates under the auspices of the Ministry of the Presidency of Spain. Her academic credentials also encompass a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the Universidad Internacional de Andalucía and a Master’s Degree in Human Rights, Multicultural Studies, and Development from Pablo de Olavide University. Furthermore, she has served as an external consultant for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). Her research interests are extensive and impactful, focusing on Conflict and Peace, Gender Studies, the Colombian Transitional Justice Process, International Crimes, Human Rights Protection Systems, and Ethnic Studies. During her fellowship, Yennesit’s research will focus on the forms of modern slavery from an ethnic and gender-differentiated approach specifically within the context of the Colombian Armed Conflict.
Sebastián Ritter Gutiérrez
Sebastian Ritter Gutiérrez is a PhD Candidate in Economics at the University of Barcelona and a predoctoral researcher in the Regional Quantitative Analysis Group (AQR). His research lies at the intersection of regional and spatial economics, migration, territorial development and applied causal inference. His doctoral thesis, *Essays on Spatial Frictions, Mobility, and Regional Development*, studies how place-based frictions such as language policy, green and twin transitions, and territorial conflict shape mobility, local economic activity and regional inequalities. His work combines administrative, survey, geospatial and satellite data with causal-inference methods.
Marcos Valentinuz
Marcos is a PhD candidate in Social Studies at the National University of the Litoral (Santa Fe, Argentina). He is also a professor of Political Economy at the same university and holds a Master’s degree in Development and Public Policy. His research examines state capacities in the field of industrial policy through a multi-scalar perspective, with particular attention to Argentina and the Province of Entre Ríos during the twenty-first century.
Dr. Zhiwu Wei
Zhiwu Wei is Leverhulme Trust and Isaac Newton Trust Early Career Fellow at the Department of Land Economy, and Governing Body Fellow of Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge. He is currently LSE-Miguel Dols Fellow at the LSE Cañada Blanch Centre and affiliated with Cambridge’s Lab of Interdisciplinary Spatial Analysis. He has held a visiting position at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford. He has acted as a consultant to international organisations, including the OECD and the Asian Development Bank.
Zhiwu received his Ph.D. in Land Economy from the University of Cambridge with no corrections. He is the winner of the 2025 Regional Science Association International (RSAI) Best Dissertation Award and was selected as Early Career Plenary Speaker at the opening session of the 2025 Regional Studies Association Annual Conference. His interdisciplinary research, spanning economics, political science, and geography, has been published in leading academic journals, including the Journal of Public Economics and Regional Studies.
Octavio Woo
I am a first-year PhD student in Finance at Bayes Business School, exploring the intersection of finance, empirical macro, and global development. I integrate econometric methods, machine learning tools, and alternative data to tackle real-world policy challenges.
More broadly, I am interested in how financial systems can generate “triple-win” outcomes, benefiting individuals, firms, and societies. Before my PhD, I worked at the Mexican Ministry of Finance and I continue to engage with policy institutions, including the Bank of England, on research related to financial stability.