PhD Candidates Named 2025 Graduate Student Summer Fellows by Institute for Global Sustainability

Tati Fontana and Yikai Zhang, Questrom PhD candidates, were two out of eight Boston University graduate students making up the new cohort of IGS Summer Fellows. The Summer Fellows program supports BU graduate students as they pursue research in IGS’s core areas—planetary health, sustainability governance, and future energy systems. Fellows receive a stipend, join an interdisciplinary peer network, and benefit from weekly faculty engagement and professional development. Many go on to publish their work in academic journals.

Tati Fontana (PhD candidate, Accounting, Questrom School of Business)

• Project Title: U.S. Capital Market Consequences of the Brussels Effect: Evidence from Sustainability Reporting 
• Research Goal: Examining U.S. investor reaction to the extraterritorial European regulatory risk in the context of the sustainability transition.  
• Faculty Advisor: Edward Riedl (John F. Smith Professor, Accounting, Questrom School of Business, and Associate Director, IGS)
• Fellowship supported by the Impact Measurement & Allocation Program at the Questrom School of Business. 

Yikai Zhang (PhD student, Business Administration, Questrom School of Business)

• Project Title: Optimizing Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure on University Campuses: A Queueing-Theoretic Analysis of Capacity and Congestion 
• Research Goal: Analyzing electric vehicle charging infrastructure data such as arrival rates, service times, and station capacity to quantify congestion patterns and utilization levels, helping to optimize network expansion. 
• Faculty Advisors: Z. Justin Ren (Associate Professor, Operations & Technology Management and Core Faculty, IGS), and Jinglong Zhao (Assistant Professor, Operations & Technology Management)
• Fellowship supported by the Impact Measurement & Allocation Program at the Questrom School of Business. 

Read more on the Institute for Global Sustainability website.