Emerson
Consequential
Scholars

For PhDs and Postdocs
Building the Future

In Partnership With

Scholars gain an entrepreneurial mindset, create strong narratives, and turn breakthrough research into impactful companies, labs, and organizations.

Emerson Consequential Scholars brings together ambitious scholars from leading universities in an immersive, personal program, where they see how their work can exist beyond the lab. Through real-world exposure, hands-on experiences, and a strong community, scholars gain the skills, perspective, and network to bring their ideas into the world.

University Partners

Expanding to UC Berkeley and Harvard soon

    
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A World Where...

“People have thought of Alzheimer’s as a specific disease, but I think of it as a general feature of aging — and I’ve been treating aging directly as a way to treat Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s at the root.”

Alexander Lenail

Emerson Consequential Scholars

Our brains are healthy our entire lives.

“Medra believes that the biggest bottleneck to building scientific superintelligence is that we need orders of magnitude more data — so we’re building physical AI scientists that not only can reason about science and predict new drugs, but can robotically and autonomously run experiments end to end.”

Michelle Lee

Founder & CEO, Medra

AI eradicates disease.

“I’ve always been drawn to solving challenges that have a huge impact. And fertilizer is one of those because it sits right at the intersection of climate change and food. We need it to eat, but at the same time, it’s a climate killer. And so we must reinvent it.”

Tim Schnabel

Founder & CEO, Switch Bioworks

We grow our food sustainably.

Current Emerson Consequential Scholars from MIT and Stanford came together to share, to learn, to build.

Testimonials

Featured

The program was one of the most formative experiences I had at Stanford, both in terms of understanding what it means to be an entrepreneur in practice and in providing me with an incredible cohort of similarly minded peers who I am lucky to still count as close friends and supporters today.

Peyton Greenside
CEO, BigHat Biosciences

The program demystified the startup process with guests who are veterans in everything from legal and IP to marketing and fundraising. It also showed a different way to success, where kindness doesn’t have to be at odds with velocity. We formed deep connections as a cohort, and many of us went on to start companies. Those connections have become invaluable. These are the people I have on speed dial whenever I need a sounding board.

Cody Coleman
CEO, Coactive AI

One of the most valuable aspects of the fellow’s program for me was the human connection: to connect with like-minded individuals. Unlike an award or a big milestone, the fellowship wasn’t a one-time thing but an ongoing engagement that reinforced innovation/entrepreneurship can mean different things for each of us—it’s not a monolith. Each of us has our own path and journey. The fellowship helped me see innovation not as a single leap, but as a series of small, steady steps. Looking back, it helped me develop valuable habits, and the friendships and connections I formed continue to be incredibly rewarding.

Saad Bhamla
Associate Professor,
Georgia Institute of Technology