Aiday Sikhova, an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Texas Tech University, has achieved a significant milestone early in her academic career. Since joining Texas Tech on September 1, Sikhova has taught Principles of Microeconomics and brought with her a diverse background shaped by experiences across multiple countries and academic disciplines.
Sikhova grew up in Kazakhstan during the country’s transition to independence from the Soviet Union. Influenced by her parents, both former mathematics professors who moved into actuarial science, she developed an early interest in mathematics but found herself drawn to economics after attending Vanderbilt University in the United States. “I could see the applications right away, and then it clicked,” she said. “I was like, ‘I really want to do this.’”
After earning undergraduate degrees in economics and math and completing doctoral work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under Professor Ananth Seshadri, Sikhova focused her research on intergenerational mobility. Using administrative data from Sweden, she found that parental attitudes toward education have a greater impact on children’s educational attainment than financial resources alone. Her findings were published in the Journal of Labor Economics.
Sikhova continued to explore questions about education choices during postdoctoral research at Ohio State University. Collaborating with professors Bruce Weinberg and Meta Brown, she examined factors influencing students’ decisions to pursue STEM majors or other fields. The team applied for National Science Foundation (NSF) funding three times before receiving a grant in August 2025 for their project.
This achievement came shortly after Sikhova received another NSF grant for a collaborative effort involving researchers from Ohio State and Miami University. These awards marked the first time a faculty member from Texas Tech’s Department of Economics had secured federal funding through the NSF.
“Two NSF grants in the span of two months,” said Rashid Al-Hmoud, chair of the department. “I can’t emphasize how important that is for us as a department, as the College of Arts & Sciences and also as a university.”
Sikhova’s recent work aims to make economics more accessible to students by using real-life examples in teaching—an approach that earned her two campus-wide teaching awards at UW Madison. She believes practical illustrations help students understand abstract concepts more easily: “When you use these kinds of real-life examples, I think that for students, it’s easier to understand what complements mean.”
Al-Hmoud noted that Sikhova’s research focuses on aligning education outcomes with labor market needs amid advances such as artificial intelligence: “That is the type of research that is going to get lots of national attention once completed, because people will have an interest in learning what majors to choose if they want to improve their chances of a good job.”
Sikhova hopes her experience across academia and industry will benefit undergraduate students considering various career paths. Having settled into Lubbock with her family, she expressed appreciation for both the community and support within her department.
Reflecting on her journey so far, Sikhova emphasized perseverance: “You have to keep going,” she said. “Because sometimes, the things that you think are failures are actually stepping stones to a bigger success you didn’t consider was possible.”
