Wharton Innovation
Doctoral Symposium

Studying careers and labor markets. She is particularly interested in hiring dynamics, as well as the connections between organizational design, strategic human capital, and firm performance outcomes such as innovation. Zorina earned her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University, where she majored in Sociology and Political Science.

His research centers on artificial creativity and the role of AI judgment in applications within creative industries, with the goal of advancing insights into the economics of AI, including its implications for labor and organizational decision-making. He experiments with large language models (LLMs) to explore AI’s broader impact on work and productivity. Previously, he completed a degree in Computer Science and an MBA.

His research focuses on emerging topics in clean energy, with a particular interest in addressing how to best integrate new technologies in existing energy systems to mitigate the impacts of climate change. He studies the geographically varying impacts of clean energy investments to identify optimal development strategies and explores business model and technology innovations that improve developer returns. Prior to his doctoral studies, he worked at Tesla Energy and EDF Renewables and graduated from UC Berkeley with a BS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research.

Specializing in asset pricing and innovation. His research examines how financial markets respond to innovation, particularly around the announcement and release of new products. Before starting his doctoral studies, Fernando worked at Bank of America, focusing on FX and fixed income strategy in emerging markets. He earned both a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Applied Mathematics and a master’s degree in Economic Theory from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM).

His research interests are in entrepreneurial strategy, venture capital and innovation. Prior to academia, Vinay was a Managing Director at multiple PE and VC funds, investment banker at Goldman Sachs NY, led M&A at Flipkart and held board roles at unicorn startups. Vinay has degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan).

Specializing in entrepreneurship, technological innovation, and strategy. His current work examines how resources shape entrepreneurial experimentation, an important cornerstone of innovation-driven enterprises. His work relies on large archival datasets, applied econometrics and deep learning – especially large language models – to generate behavioral insights about startups. Prior to academia, he worked in the cosmetics development and manufacturing industry and at the National Research Council, both in Canada. He received his BSc in Industrial Chemistry (specialization in Industrial Chemical Technology), MASc in Chemical Engineering and MS in Management (Strategy, Entrepreneurship & Innovation).

His research focuses on the intersection of large language models with statistical insights. His recent projects include exploring watermarking techniques to enhance transparency in AI systems and creating a hypothesis-testing framework to assess whether large language models possess genuine reasoning abilities. Alongside his academic pursuits, he actively participates in data science competitions in energy and network science, earning distinctions in the CityLearn Challenge, ADRENALIN Energy Competitions, and the Science4cast Competition.