Eleanor Sigel

Eleanor Sigel

Eleanor Sigel is a pre-doctoral research fellow at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, within the Stanford Initiative for Business, Taxation, and Society (STAX) on questions in public finance and tax policy. She received B.A. degrees in Economics and Mathematics from the University of Southern California in 2025. Outside of research, she is a competitive endurance runner and writes about her three special interests: 1) running 2) eating 3) herself.

Research

Stanford Graduate School of Business (July 2025–present)

As a pre-doctoral fellow at Stanford GSB, Sigel collaborates with Professor Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato at the STAX Lab on empirical projects in public finance, including tax incentives, R&D investment, and corporate behavioral responses to tax policy.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (June–August 2024)

As a research intern in the Microeconomics Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Sigel contributed to two projects: a Regression Discontinuity study of Colombian import data examining the US–Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (with Dr. Diego Jiménez Hernández), and early-stage applied micro research using US Court of Appeals judicial data (with Dr. Camilo Garcia-Jimeno).

USC Department of Economics (February 2022–October 2024)

Research assistant to Professor Augustin Bergeron on projects in applied microeconomics, development economics, and economic history, using Stata, QGIS, and R to analyze spatial, survey, and historical data. Contributed research assistance to "From Kin to Creed: Missions and the Reconfiguration of Social and Moral Order in Colonial Congo" (Bergeron, 2025), a study of how Christian missions in colonial Congo reshaped kinship ties, moral values, and group identity.

REU — "Research Projects in Data-Enabled Industrial Mathematics" (May–July 2023)

At Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in partnership with the Nevada National Security Site, Sigel worked on "Uncertainty Propagation in Image Deblurring" — reframing image deblurring as a linear inverse problem and applying machine learning and mathematical methods in Python. Results were presented at the 2023 MAA MathFest and the 2024 Joint Mathematics Meetings.

Writing

Sigel writes on running, food, and culture. Critics have described her as "the voice of her generation" and "probably the most influential writer in the Western canon." Critics have argued fiercely over whether she is more remarkable for her great beauty or for her literary talent; jury's still out. Anyway, her essays are published on Substack. One piece describing her experience running an 100 mile ultramarathon was published under the title "Nothing to do but Keep Running" by UltraRunning Magazine. She was also featured on The Sporkful, the three-time James Beard Award-winning food podcast, in an episode about running 31 miles while eating Taco Bell. [listen]

Projects

Chudridez: A Bay Area Cycling & Food Map

An interactive web map pairing 87 road-cycling routes across the San Francisco Bay Area with 40+ cyclist-favorite food and drink stops and the San Francisco Chronicle's restaurant guides. Each route carries a qualitative safety rating informed by UC Berkeley TIMS / SWITRS collision data and corridor research. Features an on-device natural-language search ("vegetarian in Marin," "epic climb East Bay"), a pinnable bucket list that reroutes through food stops, turn-by-turn navigation, and GPX export. Built keyless on MapLibre GL with OpenStreetMap / OSRM data, and installable as an offline progressive web app. A personal project (beta); ratings are guidance, not guarantees. [view map]

Not Your Gringa's Tacos: An Authenticity-Weighted Food Map

A data visualization mapping roughly 680 Mexican restaurants, taquerías, and taco trucks across Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. Each restaurant's Google star rating is re-weighted to give more weight to reviews likely written by Hispanic/Latino diners — inferred from review language and, via U.S. Census surname data, reviewer surnames — to surface neighborhood spots that mainstream ratings may under-value. An exploratory research tool (beta); see the map's About panel for methodology and limitations. [view map]

You Say Potato, I Say…: The Post-Columbian Divergence in European Economic and Ideological Development — project site

An essay examining how the introduction of the potato shaped divergent economic and ideological trajectories across Europe after the Columbian Exchange.

Running

Sigel competes in marathons and ultramarathons. Her UltraSignup profile contains some of her ultra results.

Selected Results

• Charlevoix Marathon — 3:19:33, 9th female (BQ)
• Beer City San Jose Half Marathon (2026)
• Marathon result — MarathonView #132708
• Alameda Pint race result
• Marathon result — MarathonView #134511

Education

Eleanor Sigel • esigel@stanford.edu • Stanford GSB