2026 Lee Schipper Memorial Scholarship: Recognizing Breakthrough Research in Sustainable Transport, Freight, and Climate-Resilient Mobility

2026 Lee Schipper Memorial Scholarship Awarded for Research on Decarbonizing Ports, Electrifying Last-Mile Delivery Services, Heat-Responsive Urban Mobility, Informal Supply Chain Inefficiencies and Community-based Street Transformations

Five new researchers have been awarded the prestigious Lee Schipper Memorial Scholarship for Sustainable Transport and Energy Efficiency for transformative research proposals that challenge conventional wisdom. The scholarship supports young researchers, including two scholars from African countries conducting research at African universities. Through a new partnership with Kuehne Climate Center (KCC), two new scholarships were added for projects related to sustainable freight and logistics.

Since 2013, the Lee Schipper Memorial Scholarship has continued Lee Schipper’s legacy of enriching international policy dialogue on sustainable transport and energy efficiency. Schipper, a physicist, researcher, musician, and co-founder of EMBARQ (today, the Urban Mobility program of the World Resources Institute’s Ross Center for Sustainable Cities), inspired and shaped the thinking of a generation of students and professionals. Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF) and KCC support the scholarship, which provides funding and mentoring to promising young researchers.

The 2026 Lee Schipper Memorial Scholarship awardees are: 

Ayodeji Stephen Adekanbi for his research proposal, “Decarbonizing Port Operational Equipment: Vessel Operations and Ship-to-Shore Energy Systems at Lagos Port.” He is a Ph.D. candidate in mechanical and manufacturing engineering at Dublin City University. He holds a Master of Science in Renewable Energy Economics from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and a bachelor's in physics from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. His research examines the technical feasibility of three decarbonization pathways for Lagos’ Apapa Port Complex: shore-to-power supply and grid electrification, low-carbon fuels, and hydrogen fuel cells. Adekanbi will collect original data through a quantitative survey and interviews with port stakeholders. He will estimate baseline port emissions, model several emission reduction scenarios, and assess the impact of different decarbonization pathways on smaller firms. The research includes a comparative case study of Rotterdam Port, as well as a roadmap for staged decarbonization responsive to International Maritime Organization targets.

Alicia Fortuin-Brown for her research proposal, “Electrifying Cape Town’s Last-Mile Logistics: Risk, Labour and Just Transitions.” Fortuin-Brown is a researcher at the University of Cape Town’s African Centre for Cities. She holds a Ph.D. in Architecture and Planning, a Master of City and Regional Planning, and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental and Geographical Sciences and Sociology from UCT. Her research examines how the electrification of Cape Town’s platform-based delivery services redistributes responsibilities for vehicle access, charging, and maintenance, and mobility itself. Fortuin-Brown evaluates the success of electrified logistics not only on a technical basis, but also how equitably the costs, risks, responsibilities, and opportunities of transition are distributed. Interviews with a variety of actors across the electrified delivery ecosystem will reveal their experiences of vehicle ownership, financing, maintenance, and charging. The research will identify pathways toward a just transition in last-mile logistics, developing recommendations for policymakers, planners, and industry actors on how the transition can be governed more equitably.

Cheng-Kai Hsu for his proposal, “Thermal Elasticity of Urban Mobility Across Four Latin American Countries.” Hsu is an Assistant Professor in Arizona State University’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. He holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, a Master of Science in Transport from Imperial College London, and a bachelor’s degree in urban planning from National Cheng Kung University. His research examines how extreme heat alters urban mobility — suppressing, postponing, or redistributing trips — in Latin America. The project will draw on location-based services data from major cities in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, paired with high-resolution, gridded temperature data from the ERA5-Land climate reanalysis. Hsu will also conduct neighborhood-level analyses in selected Brazilian cities and develop practical recommendations for heat-resilient mobility planning.

Adejumo John Olukorede for his proposal, “Fuel, Food, and Friction: Measuring Last-Mile Freight Inefficiency in Lagos' Informal Markets.” Olukorede is a Master of Science in Transport and Logistics candidate at Lagos State University, where he also completed a bachelor’s in transport technology and infrastructure. His research identifies ways to reduce energy use, costs, and food waste in Lagos’ informal food markets, using Mile 12 International Market, one of West Africa’s largest perishable food hubs, as a primary case study. Through field observations, GPS trip tracking, and a survey of transporters and traders at Mile 12 Market, Olukorede will measure and map the accumulated inefficiencies along the last mile of the informal freight supply chain. His research will culminate in sharing recommendations for low-cost interventions to reduce inefficiencies in the informal market.

Yufei Wang for her proposal, “Community-based Street Transformation in London, San Francisco and Singapore.” Wang is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Architecture at the National University of Singapore. She also holds a Master of Philosophy in urban governance and design from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), a master's in urban research from the University of Glasgow, and a bachelor’s in urban and rural planning from South China University of Technology. Wang’s research examines the governance of street transformation across London, San Francisco and Singapore. She will examine real-world neighborhood-scale street transformation projects across the three cities as case studies. Through document analysis and semi-structured and walk-along interviews with community members and public-sector staff, Wang will identify mechanisms through which community involvement shapes substantive planning outcomes under different political and institutional contexts. She will produce a practical guide for planners, policymakers, elected officials, and community groups about how to design meaningful community involvement that enables local knowledge to influence street transformation decisions.

With the support of WRI and the World Bank, several of the scholars will present their work at the Transforming Transportation conference in March 2027 to recognize and inspire future researchers to shape the future of the transport sector.

On behalf of the Scholarship Board and the Schipper Family, co-founders Holger Dalkmann and Ramon Munoz-Raskin congratulate the new scholars and thank VREF, KCC and other partners for their support.