Schwarzman Nominee Seeks to Increase Impact

We are delighted to share news about the university’s nominee for the Schwarzman Scholarship this year, Alex Marley. The Schwarzman Scholarship funds a year of study at China’s Tsinghua University in Beijing. The award, which brings together young leaders from across the United States, China, and the world, is focused on helping these young people develop leadership skills, grow in understanding of Chinese society and culture, and build powerful cross-cultural networks to facilitate dialogue and understanding between people of good will. Read below to learn more about Alex.

Alex Marley COE/CSSH’22, Electrical Engineering and Economics
Mentors: Molly Fowler, Sarah Ostadabbas, Hui Fang

Alex Marley has focused his considerable intellectual and entrepreneurial energies on making an impact. Arriving at Northeastern, Alex had already amassed a considerable amount of significant research experience, having worked with the University of Southern California’s Professor Rehan Kapadia researching the possibilities of increasing energy conversaion efficiency by leveraging integrated photonic devices. Eager to continue making a difference through research, Alex immediately got involved with the work of Professor Hui Fang, helping with the design of neural interfacing devices. Hoping to build upon this work in the service of creating adaptive technologies, Alex began supporting Professor Sarah Ostadabbas’s research on leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to recognize the position of individuals’ extremities, work that could support millions of people with physical limitations. Inspired by this research but frustrated by what seemed to be a lack of translation between the innovations of the lab and the products available in the marketplace, Alex became interested in entrepreneurship and venture capital, hoping to find ways to get powerful tools out into the world more quickly. His work in this area focused on developing expertise and sharing it within the Northeastern community through a newsletter focused on early-stage start-ups and then progressed to building the largest an-person community of like-minded young investors and founders in Boston. Last year, working alongside Molly Fowler, the CEO of Dorm Room Fund, Alex helped to raise an over-subscribed $12.5 million dollar fund, which is the first independent venture fund of its kind, allowing students to invest in other students for many years to come. As he heads into the next phase of his career, Alex has his sights set on addressing the climate crisis by helping to create and fund sustainable alternative-protein businesses. Alex hopes to study Chinese culture through the Schwarzman Scholarship in order to gain a better understanding of the world’s most populous nation and its appetites, in order to best situate his market intervention.