The caps are coming. 👀🎓
Every year, YSE graduates turn their commencement caps into works of art, and honestly, it's one of our favorite things. Class of 2026, we know you've been busy, but we've also seen what past classes have done, and the bar is HIGH. We cannot wait to see what you come up with on Monday, May 18.
For those who are unable to make it to campus for commencement, you can watch live at: /watch?v=5YNzGkOQutw
#YSE #Yale2026.
YSE Class of 2026: An architect by training, Three Cairns Scholar Mayowa Abolaji ’26 MEM came to YSE to think bigger than buildings, and left with a vision for what climate-equitable design can look like across the rapidly urbanizing Global South. He focused his studies on building decarbonization and sustainable urban systems, and last summer transformed an off-grid school classroom in Ogun State, Nigeria using solar energy and reclaimed materials. After graduation, Mayowa hopes to continue working at the intersection of policy and implementation to scale sustainable design where it's needed most.
"YSE gave me the space to start thinking in systems — about how policies, government, human behavior, and the built environment all connect, rather than treating each as an isolated problem."
#Yale2026
YSE Class of 2026: Li Murphy came to YSE fascinated by an animal many dismiss as a pest, and spent her master's research getting as close as possible to it: the Mormon cricket.
Drawing on entomology, environmental sociology, and history, she spent weeks in the field across Colorado and Nevada speaking with ranchers, land stewards, and truck drivers, and crawling on her stomach to attach tiny cameras to individual crickets to capture what they actually see. Her thesis examines the science of swarming behavior while also investigating how Western land management defines a "pest." After graduation, Li will continue her studies at the Yale Divinity School, focusing on religion and ecology.
"Once you understand the viewpoint of an insect or an animal, you can better inform your relationship to it. This research is a way of understanding, talking about, and advocating for small, often overlooked parts of our natural world."
#Yale2026
YSE Class of 2026: Thomas Harris spent his early career as a procurement forester before pursuing a PhD that took him from the longleaf pines of Georgia to the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. His dissertation — examining how a pulp company's land acquisition actually increased forest cover by removing chronic pressures like grazing and burning — reflects his rare ability to hold both the ecological and economic dimensions of forests at once. He accepted a professorship at Sewanee: The University of the South before finishing his doctorate, and is already teaching courses built directly from his YSE research.
"I don't think I knew very much about the tropics in general, and especially forest management in the tropics. That was a skill set that I developed as a PhD student that is already being put into practice."
#Yale2026
For economist Karl Aspelund, the most intriguing issues surrounding sustainability and conservation are the trade-offs between societal and private gains and losses and how policy can be designed to meet the end goal of better environmental management.
Aspelund, who will join the faculty at the #YSE July 1 as assistant professor of environmental and natural resource economics, examines environmental regulations, with a focus on market-based mechanisms, such as cap-and-trade programs and carbon offset markets, and simulates alternative policy frameworks.
“I came into economics from a concern and fascination with environmental problems. I’m interested in examining how you can design effective policy around multiple stakeholders with different goals.”
Wading through floodwaters in the name of science.
In June 2023, doctoral candidate Katherine Meier conducted field studies in the Lac Télé Community Reserve in the Republic of Congo, one of the world's most significant yet understudied ecosystems.
The Congo Basin's peat swamp forests span 16.7 million hectares and absorb nearly 1.5 billion tons of CO₂ per year, making them a critical carbon sink for our planet. Scientists only discovered their full extent in 2017, and researchers are still working to understand them. But the communities who depend on these forests for fishing, hunting, and growing cassava are facing intensifying floods, rapid economic shifts, and the erosion of traditional knowledge that has long guided their relationship with the land.
Over the course of a year, Katherine interviewed and observed 55 conservation managers and community members, documenting how local people are navigating seasonal flooding and the complex challenges of peatland management. Her work recently earned her YSE's 2026 F. Hermann Bormann Prize, awarded to a doctoral student whose research carries on the legacy of the late YSE plant ecologist who helped bring the threat of acid rain to global attention.
Next-gen materials are everywhere in the textile industry conversation, but what they actually mean and what they should deliver is still unclear.
Since August 2025, @sanjanapimoli MEM ’26 has been partnering with Ralph Lauren for her capstone at YSE to turn next-gen materials from a label into a decision-making tool brands can actually use.
This semester, she is building an evaluation framework that compares next-gen materials with their conventional counterparts — making trade-offs visible across four dimensions: impact reduction, circularity, supply chain readiness, and consumer relevance.
The goal is simple: move beyond “is this material better?” to “is this material worth scaling and under what conditions?
What can salt marshes tell us about climate change? For Sam Blair MESc '26 the answer lies in both science and policy. Sam shared his studies on how Connecticut’s coastal marshes are managed at YSE Research Day.
Big congratulations are in order! Professor Karen Seto has been honored for her work at the intersection of technology and urban science with a 2026 @franklininstitute Award, one of the oldest and most prestigious scientific awards in the country.
Professor Seto was recognized for combining satellite imagery, sophisticated modeling methods, and social sciences to uncover how urbanization and land use are reshaping our planet.
She received the award at a ceremony in Philadelphia.
Congratulations, Professor Seto!
📸 Rob Davis
What does the next decade of urban transformation look like? #Cities already hold many of the solutions 💡 — what we need now is the will, collaboration and investment to bring them to scale.
Introducing HOW TO MAKE A CITY, a 🆕 retrospective exhibition celebrating urban transformation. Drawn from 1.2k+ submissions to the WRI Ross Center #PrizeforCities 🏆 since 2018, each featured project shows how bold, local action can spark 🧨 global momentum — offering lessons on how to accelerate and deepen transformative change anywhere.
The exhibit was made in partnership with the Hixon Center for Urban Sustainability and is now on display at Yale University.
Learn more at the 🔗 in our bio.
Mangrove forests are among the world's most vital coastal ecosystems — yet expanding cities are putting them at risk. Allen Gil, MFS ’26, is using machine learning to classify how urbanization is fragmenting these forests across Southeast Asian coastlines, turning his thesis into a tool for conservation.
🎥 @danswill
