Climate Connections: Exploring cross-sector opportunities
A decade ago, Luminary Labs hosted its first Lab Session and began a tradition of convening bold and curious leaders for conversations about thorny issues that matter. As part of Climate Week NYC (September 22-29), we are hosting a special edition of our Lab Session series: Climate Connections: Exploring cross-sector opportunities convenes leaders working at the nexus of climate, infrastructure, health, workforce, and technology to discuss the far-reaching impacts of our changing climate and offer insights on emerging funding sources, innovative partnership opportunities, and thoughtful strategies for integrating climate considerations into diverse industries.
Schedule of events: September 24, 2024
8:30-9:15 a.m.
Registration, breakfast, and networking.
9:15-9:30 a.m.
Welcome remarks from Company Ventures CEO and Managing Partner Matthew Harrigan and Luminary Labs Director Rebecca Meyer.
9:30-10:30 a.m.
Panel discussion and audience Q&A moderated by Luminary Labs CEO and Founding Partner Sara Holoubek. Learn more about the panelists below.
10:30-11:30 a.m.
Networking and conversation.
Panelists
Paul Cherukuri, Ph.D., Chief Innovation Officer and Vice President for Innovation at Rice University
Dr. Paul Cherukuri is Rice University’s first vice president for innovation. As the chief innovation officer, Cherukuri leads Rice’s technology and commercialization infrastructure to translate breakthrough discoveries into inventions for societal benefit. The primary areas of focus for the Office of Innovation are technology translation, startup creation, commercialization and entrepreneurship training. The role also oversees Rice’s programs in and engagement with the Ion.
Cherukuri is a physicist, chemist and med-tech entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in academia and the pharmaceutical industry. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Kentucky and his Ph.D. in physical chemistry under Nobel laureate Richard Smalley at Rice. Before returning to Rice in 2014, Cherukuri was a visiting scholar with Harvard University chemistry Professor George Whitesides and a member of the Department of Experimental Therapeutics faculty at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He was also co-founder and chief technical officer of MAReNIR Technologies LLC and a senior scientist at Sanofi, where he developed drug products and biomedical devices.
Sarah Kaufman, Director of the NYU Rudin Center for Transportation
Sarah M. Kaufman is the Director of the NYU Rudin Center for Transportation, where she researches, advocates for and educates about policy, planning and technologies in transportation. She is also an Assistant Clinical Professor of Public Service.
Kaufman directs several projects related to improving transportation for contemporary needs: adapting to the increasing frequency and impact of extreme weather events on mobility; an autonomous vehicles policy framework for U.S. cities; The Pink Tax on Transportation, an analysis of how safety concerns impact women’s travel patterns in New York City; Intelligent Paratransit, to rethink how we transport seniors and disabled residents; and the Emerging Leaders in Transportation Fellowship, a program to enhance innovation at all levels of transportation planning and policymaking. Kaufman also serves on the Board of Commissioners of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission.
Dr. Chethan Sarabu, Director of Clinical Innovation at Cornell Tech’s Health Tech Hub and co-founder of the Climate Health Innovation & Learning Lab
Chethan Sarabu, M.D., trained in landscape architecture, pediatrics, and clinical informatics, builds bridges across these fields to design healthier environments and systems. He is the inaugural Director of Clinical Innovation for the Health Tech Hub at Cornell Tech’s Jacobs Institute. Over the past six years, Sarabu has been a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford Medicine and has worked in the health tech industry as Head of Product, Director of Clinical Informatics, and Medical Director at doc.ai and later Sharecare. He collaborates with the OpenNotes Lab as an AI and Informatics Strategist and serves as a board member of The Light Collective.
Sarabu co-founded CHILL, the Climate Health Innovation & Learning Lab, to connect the dots between climate, health, and the tech innovation community. As a shaper of the emergent field of climate health informatics, he has given multiple presentations on the topic at grand rounds and informatics symposia and is the Vice-Chair of the AMIA Climate, Health, and Informatics Working Group. His work bridges the Urban Tech and Health Tech hubs at Cornell Tech, addressing the health impacts of climate change through innovative technological solutions. This journey began as an undergraduate at Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, which provided fertile ground for interdisciplinary thought and action. Sarabu received his B.S. in 2009 from Cornell University, Landscape Architecture & Biological Sciences with a concentration in genetics.
Adrienne Schmoeker, Consultant to the Bezos Earth Fund and Senior Fellow at The GovLab
Adrienne Schmoeker is a leader in urban innovation, social impact, and transparency adoption. As the prior Deputy Chief Analytics Officer for the City of New York, Schmoeker grew New York City’s Open Data Program and advised New York City’s Open Records, Freedom of Information Law governance, open innovation campaigns, and the early days of algorithmic oversight efforts. She supports organizations in their work with cities advancing data innovation and transparency via The GovLab at NYU and the open source standard Digital Trust for Places and Routines at Helpful Places. She has more recently stepped into AI innovation efforts in philanthropy and climate through work with The Bezos Earth Fund.
Thank you to Company Ventures for hosting this Lab Session.
About Luminary Labs
Luminary Labs is a strategy and innovation consultancy founded in 2009. We work on thorny problems that matter with visionary clients at global corporations, federal agencies, and nonprofit foundations. Our work spans a broad cross section of topics across four focus areas — the future of work and education, the future of health, scientific discovery, and infrastructure — and increasingly intersects with issues such as climate and equity. Luminary Labs’ growing climate portfolio includes the AI for Climate and Nature Grand Challenge (Bezos Earth Fund),the Power Your Future Challenge (U.S. Department of Education), and the KidneyX Sustainability Prize (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).