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 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.
The 2024 Lee Schipper Memorial Scholarship awardees are:
Olanike Babalola, for her research proposal, “Multi-modal Freight Transportation Modelling in Metropolitan Lagos.” Babalola holds a Master of Science in transport and logistics and a Bachelor of Science in economics and education from Lagos State University, Nigeria. This research project will be the basis of her Ph.D. at the University of Lagos. Babalola’s research will simulate different multi-modal freight policy and technology scenarios for the Lagos urban area to estimate the medium and long-term impacts of new freight transport policies and technologies. She will develop new multi-modal freight policy recommendations informed by the model outputs and a comparative review of freight policies in Nigeria and other countries.
Tom Courtright, for his research proposal, “Boda Bodas in Kampala: Accessibility and Mis-Regulation.” Courtright is pursuing a Ph.D. in transportation studies at the University of Cape Town. He also holds a Master of Science in environment and sustainability and a Master of Urban Planning from the University of Michigan, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in international relations from Knox College in Illinois. Courtright is the research director at Africa E-Mobility Alliance and co-founder and research lead for Lubyanza, a boda boda research group. Courtright’s research aims to understand why residents of Kampala choose boda boda motorcycle taxis over other available modes and how under-regulation and for-profit actors have accelerated the growth of the boda boda industry in Uganda.
Nicholas Goedeking, for his research proposal, “Alleviating Political Congestion: Fiscal Support Policies and Public Transit Development.” Goedeking is a senior researcher at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability, having completed a Ph.D. in environmental science, policy and management at the University of California, Berkeley. He also holds a Master of Science in comparative social policy from the University of Oxford and a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, politics and economics from the University of Durham. Goedeking’s research will examine national fiscal policies for expanding public transit in middle-income countries and the conditions under which these policies are successful. He will develop comparative historical case studies about the public transit investment policies implemented by the national governments of Colombia, Mexico and South Africa.
With the support of WRI and the World Bank, all scholars will present their work at the upcoming Transforming Transportation 2025 conference 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.
