A $1.6 million gift to the ILR School has established a program to bring in researchers early in their careers to work with ILR faculty through post-doctoral fellowships. The Future of Work Fellowship program will create opportunities to enhance research on innovative research projects.

“The Future of Work Fellowship program gives us opportunities to support innovative researchers across disciplines and fields,” said Alexander Colvin, Ph.D. ’99, ILR’s Kenneth F. Kahn ’69 Dean and the Martin F. Scheinman ’75, ’M.S. ’76, Professor of Conflict Resolution. “This program lets us fund important research areas, support and enhance the work of our faculty, and offer academic hospitality to promising early-career researchers here at Cornell.”

The Future of Work Fellowship program will support three to four post-doctoral fellows, as well as one doctoral fellow, each year for five years. A key feature of the program will be mentoring; fellows will be matched with ILR faculty members who will provide mentorship and collaboration opportunities.

The first cohort of three fellows is being selected. They will be working with: Sarosh Kuruvilla, the Andrew J. Nathanson Family Professor of Industrial Relations, Asian Studies and Public Affairs, as part of the New Conversations Project; Emily Zitek, associate professor of organizational behavior, as part of ILR’s Expo Lab; and Michele Belot, professor of economics, and Philipp Kircher, the Irving M. Ives Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations, doing research as part of the Labor Dynamics Institute.

“The postdoc and current members of the Expo Lab will benefit from each other’s research productivity, training and knowledge, energy, and collaboration,” Zitek said. “The lab gains the benefits of a faculty-level scholar and the postdoc gains experience and a stepping stone to a tenure-track faculty job.”

Kuruvilla has already filled his two-year position with Joy Das, who recently earned a doctorate from Louisiana State University and studies trade.

“The post-doc that we were able to hire through the ILR School’s Future of Work Fellowship has been crucial in our ability to complete projects to meet a deadline by funding agencies,” Kuruvilla said. “The post-doc significantly enhances our ability to do more cutting-edge research that is key to growing our program, and enhancing Cornell’s reputation in the global supply-chain arena.”

Julie Greco is a communication specialist in the ILR School.