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As a PhD candidate in fiber science, Mahmoud Aboelkheir has spent considerable time thinking about how to upcycle discarded textiles into high-value materials to mitigate environmental contamination. As a Semlitz Family Sustainability Fellow, Aboelkheir is now also thinking about how a new technology might or might not be adopted by a company and diffused in the market.
“If you come up with something really cool but it’s very expensive, or it’s very hard to do, no one will adopt your technique. You have to beat current technology, you have to come up with something that is competitive,” Aboelkheir said. “The Semlitz Fellowship is really unique because it enables us scientists to connect to business leaders and MBA students and try to discover the intersection between business decision making and sustainability science.”
Aboelkheir is one of 13 2025-26 Semlitz Fellows – PhD students, postdoctoral associates or MBA students – who are exploring a range of interests, including strategies to mitigate microplastics contamination, improve environmental and social responsibility in financial investing, support sustainable food systems, and more. This is the second cohort of Semlitz Fellows, a partnership between the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability and the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. The fellowship is funded by a gift from alumni Stephen Semlitz ’75, MBA ‘76, and Cathy Glaser ‘74.
“The Semlitz Fellows program is unique because it recognizes that solving our most challenging social and environmental issues involves both scientific knowledge and business leadership,” said Mark Milstein, clinical professor of management in the Johnson College, and academic lead for the Semlitz Fellows program. “Specifically, we need to develop leaders who can understand and navigate the technical elements of those challenges, as well as influence the constructive deployment of critical private sector resources necessary for systems change.”
The year-long Semlitz fellowship involves a weekly seminar in the fall and spring semesters, coursework, and a capstone project, through which fellows develop their own research questions. All Fellows are required to take the Strategies for Sustainability course in the SC Johnson College. MBA students also take two sustainability science courses relevant to their research interests.
Meeting and learning from a wide range of scientists and business leaders who work in sustainability has been impactful and informative, said Semlitz Fellow Mollie Lipp ’15, MBA ‘26. Lipp worked in wealth management and financial planning for nine years before returning to Cornell for her MBA, where she hopes to better understand how to help clients who want to incorporate philanthropy and sustainability in their portfolios.
Lipp’s capstone project is exploring avenues for Finger Lakes winemakers to upcycle their pomace – the solids left over after grapes are pressed for their juice. Currently, most pomace is sold or given to dairy farms as a feedstock, or composted. Lipp is interested in learning whether pomace could be used in other ways, such as a second-generation biofuel, giving grapegrowers a stronger secondary revenue source and making transportation more sustainable.
“I’ve learned so much already,” Lipp said. “The MBAs tend to think about whether something would be a viable business, and whether it would make money. The PhDs think about what it takes to extract a specific ingredient, or the scientific process you’d have to use to get something to a prototype. Seeing the discussions between these groups has been so eye-opening, and really complemented my understanding.”
The 2025-26 Semlitz Fellows are:
- Mahmoud Aboelkheir, Ph.D. student in Fiber Science
- Bolanle Adeniran, MBA student in SC Johnson College of Business
- Behrooz Azimzadeh, Ph.D. ’24, postdoctoral scholar in Soil and Crop Sciences
- Sarah Callaghan, MBA student in SC Johnson College of Business
- William Ezeani, MBA student in SC Johnson College of Business
- Mai Ichihara, Ph.D. student in Global Development
- Cade Ingleson, MBA student in SC Johnson College of Business
- Morgan A. Irons, Ph.D. student in Soil and Crop Sciences
- Mollie J. Lipp, MBA student in SC Johnson College of Business
- Gauri Nagpal, Ph.D. student in City and Regional Planning
- Andy Shin, MBA student in SC Johnson College of Business
- Pera Sihite, MBA student in SC Johnson College of Business
- Charlie Tebbutt, Ph.D. student in Natural Resources and the Environment
Applications for the 2026-27 Semlitz Fellows cohort will open in January 2026. For more information on applying for the 2026-27 cohort, visit the Cornell Atkinson website, or email [email protected].
Krisy Gashler is a writer for Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.
