The Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center at Columbia Business School is pleased to offer annual fellowship awards to PhD students whose research relates to entrepreneurship, innovation or venture investing in their dissertations. Each academic year, the program awards up to four students with a fellowship of $5,000.

Application Requirements

1. A cover letter that summarizes your research interests and why you think it is relevant to entrepreneurship.
2. Your CV.
3. Copies of any paper you have written that relate to entrepreneurship. For projects that are still not complete, please provide a tentative abstract and a proposed timeline.
4. The Faculty Sponsor sheet, signed by your faculty sponsor.

Timeline

We are no longer accepting applications.

Winners announced at the CBS Entrepreneurial Faculty Research Showcase Event in fall (usually November) and present their research at the CBS Entrepreneurial Phd Research Showcase event in spring of the following academic year (spring 2023 for fall 2021 applicants).

Eligibility

1. Awards will be given as additional stipend. There are no restrictions on how the funds might be used.
2. Half of the amount of the awards will be distributed upon the announcement of the winners, the other half after the presentations in the research showcase.
3. Only students in their second, third, or fourth year PhD students may apply. Priority will be given to students from Columbia Business School.
4. Applicants must have a tenure-track faculty sponsor for their proposal.
5. Recipients will be selected based on the quality of their research and its relevance to entrepreneurship.

If you have any questions, please contact the Lang Center Faculty Director, Angela Lee: [email protected].

2021 Fellowship Recipients

James Carter PhD '22
My research uses multiple methodologies (e.g., experimental, archival, ethnographic) to explore barriers and pathways to diversity and inclusion at both the individual and organizational level, with a particular emphasis on discrimination and social identity.

Junjun PhD '23 
​​My research interests are in corporate finance, macroeconomics, and innovation, with a focus on data privacy and technology policy. I study how data privacy regulations affect business practices, innovation activities, and market competitions.

Vrinda Mittal PhD '22
My research lies at the intersection of private equity, venture investing, and real estate. I study the real footprint of public pension fund investments in private markets on the firms, who are ultimately financed via private equity and venture capital funds.

Yiran Kang
Broadly, I study the impacts of information provision by early-stage firms. Specifically, I am interested in understanding the absence of a mandatory financial reporting regime and what information is produced and valued by entrepreneurs and investors.

2020 Fellowship Recipients

Zaijia Liu PhD '20 
I am interested in studying how the variability of entrepreneurs’ emotional expressions influences the impressions they leave among their followers.

Seyed Mansouri PhD '21
My research interests lie at the juncture of technology, entrepreneurship, finance, and economic growth.
I study how the cost of financing impacts entrepreneurial activity and technology of firms,
which are key drivers of economic growth.

Soo Min Cho PhD '21 
My research interests lie in understanding the dynamics of organizational culture in entrepreneurial ventures by leveraging machine learning techniques.

2019 Fellowship Recipients

Jean Oh PhD '22
I am interested studying in the motivations of entrepreneurs and particularly the role of pro-social considerations in determining the rate and direction of innovation. My research draws on a variety of methodologies with a focus on randomized control trials.

Yegor Tkachenko PhD '21
My research centers on designing robust, scalable intelligent systems for marketing automation and on legal and ethical issues of AI use in business settings. Methodologically, my work spans decision theory, optimization, reinforcement learning, and deep learning.

Lu Zhang PhD '22
The research is about analyzing the importance of speaking styles in persuasion in an entrepreneurial setting. One particular focus is to see if there exists some gender differences.  The methods used are machine learning models leveraging NLP tools and some tools for audio data. 

2018 Fellowship Recipient

Ye Zhang PhD '20
My research work mainly focuses on entrepreneurial finance and the impact of firms' innovations. Besides traditional entrepreneurial financial instruments (VC, Angel, etc.), I am also interested in new entrepreneurial financial alternatives like micro-finance or crowdfunding.

2017 Fellowship Recipients

Zachary Brown PhD '20
I am interested in studying how founders present themselves to others in order to effectively recruit employees, entice customers, and obtain funding — advised by Professor Adam Galinsky.

Natalie A. Carlson PhD '19
I am researching entrepreneurship and SME strategy in developing and emerging economies, as well as social entrepreneurship and the ways in which enterprises balance competing social and commercial objectives — advised by Professor Bruce Kogut.

Kylie Jiwon Hwang PhD '20
I am interested in answering the question of who becomes an entrepreneur based on individual or social characteristics, and how these features influence entrepreneurial outcomes — advised by Professor Damon Phillips.

2016 Fellowship Recipients

Xiao Cen PhD '20
My research work is at the juncture of entrepreneurship, household finance, and financial technology. 

Dana Kanze PhD '19
My research interests lie in applying behavioral insights to understand variations in funding and growth outcomes for early stage ventures.
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Alessandro Piazza PhD '18
In my dissertation, I explore an important yet under-investigated topic: the transition from entrepreneurship to angel investing.
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