ASU student, mentor win prestigious Schmidt MacArthur Fellowship

Arizona State University MBA student Eve Richer has been awarded a place on the prestigious Schmidt MacArthur Fellowship, the only circular economy fellowship program in the world. The fellowship is aimed at graduate students studying design, engineering and business.

Richer and her mentor, Rajesh Buch, director of Sustainability Practice at ASU International Development and practice lead for the Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives, will participate in a week-long summer school in London before engaging in an online learning program. The fellowship also provides Richer a cash award to develop a Circular Economy Innovation Project in her second year of graduate school.

“My MBA internship will be focused on circular economy initiatives at Cisco, and the Schmidt MacArthur Fellowship offers a fantastic opportunity to learn from thought leaders working in this space,” Richer said. “I'm also looking forward to meeting the other fellows who come from business, design and engineering backgrounds. The summer school will be a great opportunity to interact with peers in other disciplines."

This year’s Schmidt MacArthur Fellowship generated a record amount of interest and after a careful shortlisting and interviewing process, 18 students from institutions such as Yale University, MIT, University of California Berkeley, Delft University of Technology and London Business School were selected to join the program.

Buch has worked to advance the circular economy around the world through his work with the Walton Global Sustainability Solutions Service.

“I’m looking forward to developing a circular economy solution with Eve that she’ll be able to put into action after her internship with Cisco,” Buch said. “It will also be a terrific experience collaborating with the rest of the Fellows and Mentors who will be hailing from a diverse array of backgrounds and expertise.”

ASU was named a Pioneer University of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s international Circular Economy 100 (CE100) network in 2016 thanks in part to the Resource Innovation and Solutions Network (RISN), a global collaborative platform for circular economy programs that is a collaboration between ASU and the city of Phoenix.