Fridah Nyakundi, PhD

Welcome! I am a Postdoctoral Associate at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, where I am a fellow in the SCALES program.

My current research studies how carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies affect food systems. I draw on prior experience in terrestrial food systems and my doctoral work on blue foods to examine how both terrestrial CDR,  such as enhanced rock weathering, and marine CDR,  such as ocean alkalinity enhancement, reshape agricultural production and fisheries outcomes. 

I completed my Ph.D. in Environment and Resources from Stanford University's Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER). My PhD dissertation examined whether Nile tilapia aquaculture in Lake Victoria, Kenya can be sustained beyond production growth alone, studying farmer risk behavior, the spatial governance of cage expansion, and the economics of feed substitution to evaluate what financial resilience, ecological governance, and viable production strategies actually require.My broader research interests span natural resource management economics, food systems resilience, and the application of machine learning and spatial data science to agricultural and environmental economics.

Before graduate school, I spent five years at the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) as a Senior Research Associate, where I designed large-scale impact assessments and built data systems for the Africa research team. I have been a fellow at Environment for Development (EfD) Kenya since 2016, contributing to applied research in water and resource economics.

You can reach me at fridah_dot_nyakundi_at_duke_dot_edu

To read my published work, check my Google Scholar page

Please find my CV here.