Three 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.
Since 2013, the Lee Schipper Memorial Scholarship has continued the legacy of Lee Schipper’s enrichment of international policy dialogue in sustainable transport and energy efficiency. Schipper, a physicist, researcher, musician and co-founder of EMBARQ (today, the Urban Mobility program of WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities), inspired and shaped the thinking of a generation of students and professionals. Volvo Research and Educational Foundation (VREF) supports the scholarship, which provides funding and mentoring advice to promising young researchers.
Mienke Knipe, Ignacio Tiznado-Aitken and Shreya Banerjee.
The 2025 Lee Schipper Memorial Scholarship awardees are:
Mienke Knipe for her research proposal “Practical Viability of Electric Paratransit: An Analysis of Finances and Industry Willingness, Post-Technical Viability Testing, in South Africa.” She holds a Master of Commerce degree in transport economics from Stellenbosch University, where she graduated cum laude, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in transport economics. Knipe recently completed the World Bank’s African Fellowship as a transport economist. From her research, she will develop an electrification financial viability model for electric minibus taxis in South Africa, informed by vehicle tracking data in Cape Town. In-depth interviews with minibus taxi owners will reveal their willingness to transition to electric vehicles as well as practical requirements for transition. She will also develop a holistic framework for evaluating electric vehicle integration with paratransit networks in South Africa.
Ignacio Tiznado-Aitken for his research proposal “Measuring Transport Poverty: A Comparative Lens Between Chile and Canada.” Tiznado-Aitken holds a Ph.D. in engineering sciences from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto. He also serves as the associate director of the Mobilizing Justice Partnership. Tiznado-Aitken’s research will measure and analyze transport poverty — a person’s inability to participate fully in society due to limited mobility, accessibility, affordability or exposure to externalities — in two Chilean cities, Santiago and Concepción, building upon Canada’s Mobilizing Justice Partnership. The project will generate original data through a primary survey, allowing for the characterization of transport poverty across population groups, as well as spatial analysis. The research will develop a baseline of transport poverty in Chile, while also allowing comparisons between Chile and Canada.
Shreya Banerjee for her research proposal “Women-on-the-Go: A Novel Walkability Decision Framework for Extreme Weather Resilience.” Banerjee holds a Ph.D. in architecture and regional planning and a master’s degree in city planning from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. She is currently an assistant professor in the Center for Emerging Technologies for Sustainable Development at the Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur. Her research develops a first-of-its-kind, gender-responsive walkability framework considering extreme weather resilience in two cities in South Asia: Jodhpur (extreme heat) and Kathmandu (extreme cold). Through a survey of women pedestrians and by collecting their health data, the project aims to understand the hyperlocal range for comfortable walking for women, as well as the barriers hindering women’s walkability. Banerjee’s research will investigate how access to shared mobility affects walkability for women, and simulate how potential street design recommendations could improve resilience to extreme weather conditions.
With the support of WRI and the World Bank, all scholars will present their work at the Transforming Transportation conference in March 2026 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 and other partners for their support.
