Twenty-four University of Chicago College students will dive into immersive research experiences this summer with the Institute’s Polsky Research Fellows program. The program, sponsored by the Polsky Energy Transition Leadership Academy, provides undergraduates with full-time, paid summer research opportunities.
Working with a UChicago faculty mentor, Fellows will investigate the climate and energy challenge through a range of disciplines including computer science, geophysical sciences, economics, and law.
In addition to field-specific skills, each Fellow will gain a valuable understanding of the research process and insights into critical environmental topics. Outside of the lab, Fellows will expand their understanding of the field through faculty lunch talks and off-site excursions.
Learn more about the summer 2026 cohort of Polsky Research Fellows below.
Nicholas Chin
Faculty Mentor: Dorian Abbot
Nicholas Chin is a second-year undergraduate majoring in math and computer science. His main academic interest is in machine learning. This summer, he will be working with Professor Dorian Abbot on using reinforcement learning for atmospheric modeling.
Quintin Fernandez
Faculty Mentors: B.B. Cael and Dr. Vikrant Sapkota
Quintin Fernandez is a rising third year studying physics and molecular engineering. He has a strong interest in atmospheric science and hurricanes and will always love paleotempestology. As a Polsky Research Fellow, Fernandez will work under Professor B.B. Cael and Dr. Vikrant Sapkota to understand the potential impacts of stratospheric aerosol injections on the climate. In this role, Fernandez will help to further develop novel Pseudo-SAI WRF simulations, as well as collect and analyze data from major mesoscale weather events.
Bella Garrido
Faculty Mentor: Emily Talen
Bella Garrido is a rising third year undergraduate pursuing a double major in psychology and anthropology. She is passionate about understanding human behavior through the lens of cultural and environmental context. As a Polsky Research Fellow, she will be working with Professor Emily Talen in collaboration with the Chicago Climate Action Museum to conduct research around how communication strategies can influence climate-related behaviors.
Grace Gu
Faculty Mentor: Hajin Kim
Qianying (Grace) Gu is a first-year student studying computer science and economics. Her interests lie at the intersection of legal analysis, computational methods, and climate governance. As a Polsky Research Fellow, Gu will be working with Professor Hajin Kim at the Law School on projects examining the effects of the Supreme Court’s Sackett v. EPA decision and using large language models to analyze corporate sustainability reports. Through this fellowship, she hopes to deepen her ability to apply technical tools to legally and socially consequential research.
Melinda Gu
Faculty Mentor: Shaoda Wang
Zhiheng (Melinda) Gu is a rising third-year undergraduate majoring in economics and mathematics, with a minor in music. She is interested in environmental and development economics, with a focus on how economic tools can be used to understand and address real-world policy challenges. This summer, she will be working with Professor Shaoda Wang on research in environmental economics and policy, focusing on data-driven evaluation of environmental regulations. Later in the summer, she will join the Paulson Institute as a Research Intern.
Aryan Kaushal
Faculty Mentor: Katie Kowal
Aryan Kaushal is a rising third year at the College, pursuing a B.S. in computer science (CS) and mathematics. He has always been interested in applying computer science to real-world scenarios and believes that CS can have a tangible impact in the field of climate studies. As a Polsky Research Fellow, he will be working under Dr. Katie Kowal and the Human-Centered Weather Forecasts Initiative (HCWF) team on ML-based weather modeling and providing tailored weather forecasts to improve human lives in low- and middle-income countries like India and Ethiopia.
Charvi Khandelwal
Faculty Mentor: Eyal Frank
Charvi is a third-year student studying economics and astrophysics with interests in climate risk, energy systems, and data-driven policy analysis. This summer, she will be working with Professor Eyal Frank at the Harris School of Public Policy on research examining how climate change affects wildlife-related vehicle collisions through changing winter weather patterns and animal population dynamics. Through this fellowship, she is excited to combine quantitative analysis with environmental research while exploring how climate and infrastructure intersect with public safety and sustainability.
Anika Krishnaswamy
Faculty Mentor: Kilian Huber
Anika is a rising fourth year in the College studying economics and statistics. This summer, she will be conducting research as a Polsky Research Fellow with Kilian Huber, Professor of Economics and Finance at the Booth School of Business.
Marcus Kuo
Faculty Mentor: Michael Kremer
Marcus is a rising fourth-year undergraduate majoring in economics and mathematics. Since the fall of his second year in the College, he has worked as a research assistant at Professor Michael Kremer’s Development Innovation Lab. This summer, he will continue his work on a project studying the effects of installing air purifiers in schools located in highly polluted areas. Specifically, he will be developing analyses using a rich panel dataset and investigating possible nonlinearities in the effect of pollution reduction with the ultimate goal of using empirical methods to help inform scalable and cost-effective policy interventions.
Nigel Lawrence
Faculty Mentors: Joshua Horton, B.B Cael, and David Keith
Nigel is an undergraduate student at the College majoring in environmental science. His upbringing in the Caribbean Island of Dominica has fueled his interest in studying human-environment interactions in response to natural disasters and ongoing changes in climate. As a Polsky Fellow, Nigel will be working under Joshua Horton, B.B Cael, and David Keith to conduct research on current climate system engineering experiments and analyze how these efforts should be designed in alignment with policy frameworks and sustainability considerations.
Ethan Li
Faculty Mentor: Meghana Ranganathan
Ethan Li is a rising third-year at the College majoring in computational and applied mathematics and computer science. This summer, he will be working with Professor Meghana Ranganathan on using machine learning and remote sensing techniques to understand and model ice sheet behavior.
Haley Li
Faculty Mentor: Pedro Lopes
Haley Li is a second-year undergraduate student pursuing computer science and physics. Her interests include providing technological solutions to environmental problems. As a Polsky Research Fellow, Haley is working with Pedro Lopes and Jasmine Lu to develop a user interface for an open-source tool that helps users repair printed circuit boards in an effort to reduce electronic waste.
Mireya Lima Vasquez
Faculty Mentor: Chibueze Amanchukwu
Mireya is a third-year student working in Professor Chibueze Amanchukwu’s lab, where she researches solid polymer electrolytes and battery technology. She is passionate about advancing clean energy solutions and is excited to continue her work this summer through the Polsky Research Fellowship.
Zoe Lipschultz
Faculty Mentor: Laura Gagliardi
Zoe is a rising third-year student majoring in applied mathematics with minors in quantum information science and Spanish. She is interested in exploring the use of quantum computational techniques to assist in designing energy efficient materials. Previously, in the Design of Materials on Computers (DMC) lab at the University of Minnesota, Zoe investigated the application of machine-learning techniques to the computational design of metal oxides. This summer, she will work with Professor Laura Gagliardi in collaboration with the Center for Advanced Materials for Environmental Solutions (CAMES) to design optimal features of porous materials using classical and quantum computational methods.
Melissa Marquez
Faculty Mentor: Chibueze Amanchukwu
Melissa Marquez is a rising third-year student at the College, majoring in molecular engineering on the chemical engineering track. Her research interests focus on polymer materials and their large-scale implementation in sustainable energy technologies. As a Polsky Fellow, she will work in the Amanchukwu Lab, while continuing her investigation of novel polymer electrolytes to improve ionic conductivity and oxidative stability in next-generation batteries.
Yura Mizutani
Faculty Mentor: Koichiro Ito
Yura Mizutani is a rising third-year undergraduate majoring in economics and mathematics. Her academic interests lie at the intersection of environmental policy and international political economy, with a particular focus on transboundary water governance. She will continue serving as a research assistant under Professor Koichiro Ito on empirical microeconomic research in energy markets and policy, including projects on solar subsidies and power outages.
Adriana Ortega
Faculty Mentor: Gokhan Mutlu
Adriana Ortega is a rising fourth-year student studying biological sciences with a specialization in immunology and a minor in Spanish. She has extensive experience in macrophage-related basic science research through her work in the Mutlu Lab and will continue this research under the Polsky Fellowship Program. Adriana has presented her research at the 2025 Pritzker School of Medicine Experience in Research Annual Symposium and the 2026 UChicago Undergraduate Research Symposium. She is currently working on a project focused on the effects of specific environmental stimuli on the metabolism and immune response of tissue-resident alveolar macrophages. Beyond research, she is deeply passionate about serving the Latino community and hopes to integrate research and patient care in her career to address health disparities in this population.
Kavi Patel
Faculty Mentor: Eric Richert
Kavi Patel is a rising third-year at the College, pursuing a B.S. in computer science and a B.A. in economics. This summer, he will be continuing his work alongside Professor Eric Richert analyzing the Australian energy and FCAS markets to screen for collusive pricing behavior driven by increased auto-bidder usage. Previously, he has consulted for a leading U.S. energy derivatives exchange, advising on its entrance into private markets, and conducted equity research for a wealth management firm on companies focused on enhancing digital infrastructure, grid connectivity, and industrial networks. His broader interests center on how capital is deployed to finance the infrastructure underpinning the energy transition.
Violet Reed
Faculty Mentor: Pete Irvine
Violet Reed is a graduating senior pursuing a joint B.A./M.A. in economics and social sciences. She is passionate about climate policy and energy systems. As a Polsky Research Fellow, she will work with Professor Peter Irvine to assess the potential consequences of alternative Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) scenarios. In this role, she will apply Python-based analytical tools to climate model simulations, evaluating how different SAI strategies affect regional climate outcomes to inform evidence-based risk analysis of SAI as a climate policy option.
Aarav Sonthalia
Faculty Mentor: Dorian Abbot
Aarav Sonthalia is a rising second-year undergraduate studying computational and applied mathematics. His experience includes machine learning and data analysis, having conducted semiconductor research at Columbia University’s CLUE Lab and trained models on large-scale NASA asteroid datasets. He will be working with Professor Dorian Abbot to investigate weather modification and atmospheric modeling.
Parjanya Tiwari
Faculty Mentor: B. B. Cael
Parjanya Tiwari is a rising third-year student at the College studying cognitive science and economics. She is interested in existential risk policies such as climate policy and AI safety policies. Having grown up in India, her interest in climate and sustainability hits close to home, especially witnessing rising temperatures and being immersed in eco-conscious communities like Auroville from a young age. Having done the India Summer Fellows program last year, her interest in direct climate research reached new heights and she’s excited about the prospect of contributing more. She also worked on an Indigenous Climate Practices Policy project with Paul Douglas Institute (PDI) at UChicago and is now especially motivated to work with B. B. Cael as a Polsky Fellow!
Marija Ulevičius
Faculty Mentor: Meghana Ranganathan
Marija is a third-year student studying geophysical sciences with a minor in geographic information science. Born and raised in Florida, she developed an early fascination with fluid Earth systems, particularly atmospheric science and ocean dynamics. Driven by the realities of sea-level rise in her home state, and after particularly enjoying an introductory course on the cryosphere with Professor Meghana Ranganathan, her academic interests expanded to include glaciology. As a Polsky Research Fellow, Ulevičius will work under Professor Ranganathan to improve models of ice crystal size and ice flow using ice core data from Greenland and Antarctica, remote sensing, and mathematical modeling. In this role, she will help compare model outputs with observational datasets and investigate how variations in ice microstructure influence large-scale ice sheet behavior and future sea-level rise.
Ben Yamamoto
Faculty Mentor: Jim Franke
Ben is a second year majoring in geophysical sciences. He has an interest in earth and atmospheric systems and their application towards sustainable energy and various climate solutions. As a Polsky Research Fellow, Ben will work with Jim Franke, Research Assistant Professor of Geophysical Sciences.
Mathew Ye
Faculty Mentor: Shaoda Wang
Mathew is a rising third-year undergraduate majoring in political science. His academic interests lie at the intersection of environmental policy and economics. This summer, he will be working with Professor Shaoda Wang to analyze the influence of mass media on Chinese environmental policy decisions.