The Environmental Institute Names 2026 Environmental Futures Fellows Tackling Climate Risks Globally

Three graduate students will spend the summer researching some of the world’s most urgent environmental challenges, from climate vulnerability in Rio’s neighborhoods, to wetland impacts from Northern Virginia data centers, and the growing downstream dangers of wildfire-driven flooding.

The UVA Environmental Institute announces awards to three University of Virginia graduate students as the 2026 cohort of Environmental Futures Fellows. This program awards summer funding to student researchers investigating critical issues on environmental change.

This year, the Institute is proud to announce the 2026 Environmental Fellows: Emily Gregory, Julia Davis, and Jack Boyle.

“The work of these three UVA graduate students reflects the mission of the Environmental Institute: to bring solutions to climate challenges that are grounded in frontier research,” said Karen McGlathery, director of the UVA Environmental Institute. “Their work with undergraduate students, faculty, and community members showcases the collaborative work that brings research to action.”

Emily Gregory
(Politics)

working with Reese Barrett

Gregory, working with undergraduate student Barrett, will investigate socio-environmental vulnerability and state responses to the risk of landslides and floods in the favelas (informal urban settlements) of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her work will use participatory action to gather experiences and feedback from community members.

“In cities around the world, residents of informal settlements are among the populations most exposed to climate change, and yet they often have the least say in how governments respond to the risks they face,” said Gregory.

Gregory’s work investigates the politics behind these decisions, asking why communities living with comparable threats of climate hazards, such as landslides and floods, often receive starkly different responses from the state, from resettlement programs to infrastructural upgrading, to sustained inaction.

“I’m incredibly grateful for the Environmental Institute’s support of my dissertation work, which has made it possible for me to conduct critical fieldwork in climate-vulnerable communities at the heart of these dynamics this summer,” Gregory shared. “I’m especially appreciative of the interdisciplinary collaboration this fellowship fosters, and the opportunity to partner with Reese [Barrett], both of which will meaningfully enrich this project and my dissertation as a whole.”

Julia Davis
(Engineering)

working with Karen Guzman

Davis, working with undergraduate Karen Guzman, will research the effects of data center construction on wetlands in northern Virginia.

Davis shared: “This fellowship gives me the opportunity to advance research at the intersection of infrastructure development, wetland protection, and environmental governance. This summer, I hope to build a spatial and policy-focused analysis that identifies where data center expansion may overlap with vulnerable wetlands and where regulatory or mitigation gaps could shape environmental outcomes. I’m especially excited to mentor an undergraduate researcher and contribute to more interdisciplinary conversations about how growing digital infrastructure can be planned in ways that better protect ecosystems and communities.”

Jack Boyle
(Environmental Science)

Boyle will create a model based on data from the Northern Rockies to predict and identify areas where climate change is expected to increase wildfire. Part of his project will examine how predicted fires would affect downstream communities under altered water conditions resulting from those fires.

“Wildfires are increasing in intensity and frequency globally. However, an underrepresented consequence of these extreme fires is their manipulation of watershed characteristics. Unprecedented flooding following a wildfire delivers heavily polluted waters to downstream communities. In such a volatile climate, my research asks vital questions regarding the resilience of communities not only to wildfire, but to the conditions that persist in their water and environment far after the ash settles,” Boyle explained.

“This fellowship directly supports my research to understand how we can mitigate dangerous flooding and pollution in communities downstream of a burn and to heal the memory of fire.”