Borealis Fellowship
BUILDING A WORLD-CLASS INNOVATION ECONOMY IN THE NORTH
The Alaska Tech Hub’s new Borealis Fellowship celebrates the exceptional work of rising stars in all fields related to energy innovation that are interested in the application of their work to the Last Frontier.
We’ve scoured North America for founders, engineers, researchers, investors, writers/filmmakers, and more whose work touches on technologies that can:
- Produce clean, abundant, and cheap energy
- Promote energy efficiency
- Support an emerging carbon removal industry
- Help communities adapt to shifting environmental conditions.
In 2025, the Borealis Fellowship centers on an expenses-paid experience in Alaska from June 1–14, including passes to the state’s premiere forum for energy topics, the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference.
Alaska Tech Hub's Borealis Fellowship
Fellowship perks for those traveling to Anchorage include:
- Airfare, accommodations, access to rental cars for a two-week fellowship in Anchorage, Alaska in June 2025
- Full conference passes to the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference
- Networking events with Alaskan leaders in energy innovation
- A full-day guided outdoor adventure excursion
- Per diem for food
- An opportunity to share your work at Launch Alaska’s Climate Innovation Showcase
- Two-weeks access to the Board Room co-working space to give remote work in Alaska a try
- A curated list of professional leads relevant to your profession
To accept the award, prospective fellows must commit to coming to Alaska from the morning of June 2nd to the evening of June 13th, 2025, and should be prepared to attend the following events:
- The Launch Alaska Climate Innovation Showcase, Monday June 2nd 5:30-7:30pm
- The Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference, June 3-5th
- All day excursions on Saturday June 7th and Sunday June 8th
- Celebratory networking event at the Alaska Native Heritage Center, Friday June 13th, 4-8pm
A subset of fellowship spots will be reserved for those already present in Anchorage. Local fellowships will receive non-travel benefits, including conference passes, participation in all fellowship activities, and access to the Board Room co-working space.
One or more science media fellows will also be provided with a reporting budget of up to $2,000 for in-state travel, with up to an additional $3,000 available for licensing of high quality imagery and videos.
**As one of the fellowship’s goals is to share the experience of remote working in Alaska, all fellows must either be US citizens or permanent residents, or otherwise hold visas that allow them to work in Alaska during the fellowship window. We unfortunately cannot help applicants obtain such visas at this time. For startup founders or employees outside of the US, we encourage you to check out Launch Alaska’s Tech Deployment Track and Gener8tor’s Soft Landing Pad programs.**
Borealis Fellows 2025
Jay Byam
Jay is the co-founder and leader of Kartorium, a digital twin startup that helps organizations better understand and manage their physical assets through interactive digital models. For over five years, he’s guided the company in making this technology more accessible and useful across industries, including the energy sector. Before starting Kartorium, Jay worked as a senior software consultant and developer, building 3D, AR, and VR solutions for major companies like Amazon and GE.
Aaron Cappelli
Aaron was raised in Colorado and came to Alaska in 2013 while serving as an artillery officer at JBER. After the military, he spent two years at ANTHC working in remote water utility management for Alaska Native communities in Southwest Alaska. He left Alaska in 2019 to complete a dual-degree program where he received an MBA at UNC and a Masters of Environmental Management at Duke. Ultimately, Aaron wants to become a leader on the cutting edge of sustainability, with specific interests in innovative food and agriculture. Aaron missed Alaska too much and moved back in 2023 where he is raising his two young kids with his wife, Emily, and doing consulting projects on everything from mass timber to affordable housing.
Whitner Chase
Whitner serves as the Investment Associate for Seneca Environmental, a renewable energy development and investment company wholly owned by the Seneca Nation. He works to acquire utility-scale solar projects for the company and is building tribal capacity to market and sell renewable energy certificates (RECs). While in-state as a Borealis Fellow, Whitner is particularly excited to support rural Alaskan communities in reducing their cost of energy by accessing new revenues from REC sales.
Sarah Douglas
Sarah is Senior Engineer for Strategic Operations at Renewell Energy, a company that repurposes abandoned oil and gas infrastructure to create clean, efficient, and inexpensive energy storage systems. A proud Bruin, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering at UCLA before spending several years in the aerospace industry doing R&D testing, mechanical design, system integration of critical spacecraft payloads, and technical operations management. Having just learned about the concept of packrafting, she’s excited to give it a try while in Alaska.
Kate Furby
Kate is a multimedia science journalist, with a PhD from Scripps Oceanography in marine biology, specializing in climate change impacts. She works to elevate authentic voices and overlooked stories in science journalism. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, National Geographic, NPR, PBS Digital Studios, among others. Most recently, she launched a nature writing Substack newsletter called Hot Moss. Excited to get to know more about Alaska! She’s definitely hoping to check out the hiking and coastal birds in her free time too.
Vida Gabriel
Vida is the Founder and CEO/COO of TerraFixing, a direct air carbon capture (DAC) startup based in Ottawa, Canada. She has a PhD in Chemical Engineering, is a Forbes 30 Under 30, food enthusiast, percussionist, and gymnast in the making. She's most excited to hike and do other outdoor activities in Alaska.
Hilary Landfried
Hilary is a senior strategist with extensive experience in strategy, operations, and project delivery. She has led the development of over $1.7 billion in U.S. federal investments in sustainable agriculture, food security, and resilience, managed market entry and field trials for clean energy technologies, and was on the founding team of a nonprofit advancing global policy innovation. Her work bridges public and private sectors to scale practical solutions. Hilary holds a Master in Public Affairs from Princeton University, where she specialized in environmental policy.
Ryan Lee
Ryan is a climate tech investor and ecosystem builder focused on emerging markets. He is a Partner at Obudu Capital, an early-stage venture fund supporting sustainable solutions across Africa. Previously, he lived across Nigeria, Uganda, and Kenya consulting with startups and recently led the organizing of Uganda’s first-ever Climate Tech Summit. He is also passionate about adventure tourism and is supporting projects such as developing rock climbing gyms across Africa and promoting a film on Uganda’s elite marathon runners. Based in Boston, he is excited to visit Alaska for the first time and try packrafting under the midnight sun.
Sarah Mastroni
Sarah is a Program Officer at Ocean Visions where she is responsible for leading and supporting the development of key projects, products, and activities across multiple pillars of work, including ocean carbon dioxide removal. Sarah has a background in intertidal ecology, investigating impacts of climate change in California and Alaskan intertidal systems. Before joining Ocean Visions, Sarah worked with Blue Ocean Barns as a Policy Analyst to help navigate their integration of methane-reducing red seaweed into cattle feed across the United States. She received her B.S. from UCLA where she studied Marine Biology and Italian, and her M.S. from UCSC’s Coastal Science and Policy Program. Sarah currently lives in Anchorage, Alaska.
Esther Mburu
Esther is the Carbon Policy Analyst at Restore the Delta, where she assesses energy and carbon management projects and policies to shape advocacy priorities. Originally from Nairobi, Kenya, and currently residing in California, Esther is passionate about energy access and environmental protection. Her experience is broad: energy and environmental issues, including waste disposal from oil and gas drilling operations, clean cooking, electricity and grid reliability, and geothermal and oil and gas energy development. Prior to joining Restore the Delta, she worked on energy efficiency at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Esther holds a BSc in Petroleum Engineering and a Master's in Development Engineering from UC Berkeley.
Sam Neufeld
Sam is a Program Manager at Con Edison, New York City's primary utility. Previously, he was a Venture Capital investor in Climate Tech startups, an operator at multiple startups, and a tech policy consultant for the Indian Government.
Ying Sun
Ying is a Ph.D. plant biologist and co-founder of a startup, Rare Flora, developing plants for sustainable metal extraction from soil. Passionate about climate solutions and equity in STEM, she blends science with entrepreneurship to tackle environmental challenges. Ying has two fat guinea pigs and a proud cockatiel, and in her free time, she loves hiking, exploring nature, and ice skating. Originally from Las Vegas, she's thrilled to experience the wild beauty of Alaska, especially the berries and, hopefully, getting to pet a sled dog!
The Alaska Tech Hub is a consortium of more than twenty entities spanning economic development, education, tribal government, workforce development, and every manner of private sector firm.
We are led by Cook Inlet Tribal Council
and funded by the
U.S. Economic Development Administration
Core Partners
let's connect!
Join the climate tech community on LinkedIn!
let's connect!
Email Tim Treuer, Director of Alaska Tech Hub