The following students were recognized in the 2026-2027 academic year:

Chelsey Graham received a UPS Fellowship, which supports PhD and master’s-level students conducting research in transportation, logistics, and supply chain management. Her work in the MIT Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab focuses on developing a data-driven framework to diagnose network vulnerabilities, identify the structural mechanisms behind them, and inform the design of more resilient distribution networks. Motivated in part by research conducted for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), where her lab identifies critical supply chain flows and bottlenecks under realistic earthquake and hurricane scenarios, has direct implications for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers.

Michael Leong, aPhD candidate at the MIT JTL Urban Mobility Lab and Transit Lab, received a UPS Fellowship. His research focuses on strategic urban adaptations to strengthen cities and transportation systems under structural demand shifts from the events of the 2020s. This has included transit-oriented development strategies to improve long-term ridership resilience for the Washington DC Metro System, achieving transportation sector climate goals, and the use of customer feedback intelligence and sentiment analysis to improve transit planning and operations.

Ruofei Jia was awarded the Martin Fellowship, which supports MIT doctoral students pursuing sustainability research in a wide array of fields and topics. Her work in the Terrer Lab focuses on quantifying, understanding, and predicting soil dynamics in natural systems under climate change. Using a self-compiled database, she found that soil in forests and grasslands accumulated a large amount of carbon in recent decades, serving as a strong buffer against climate change. Her ongoing research aims to better understand these processes and improve predictions of soil carbon accrual.

Ernie Lee, a PhD candidate in the Nepf Lab, received the Harold J. Pettegrove Award, which is presented in recognition of outstanding service to intramural athletics. Ernie played a key role in strengthening community within CEE, coordinating intramural team logistics across both fall and spring semesters from 2022 through 2026. He designed, procured, and distributed CEE team shirts, communicated game schedules and reminders in a timely manner, and created promotional materials for playoff games to help build department support. Notably, the CEE basketball team, which earned championship titles in Spring 2024 and Spring 2025, has become a cornerstone of departmental culture.