Economist and graduate of the University of Cambridge, currently enrolled in a predoctoral programme at the Development Innovation Lab at the University of Chicago, where she joined the team led by Nobel Prize laureate in Economics, Michael Kremer. In her research, Lena focuses on development policy, energy, and gender equality, and her undergraduate thesis examined the impact of electrification on women’s employment in Sub-Saharan Africa. During her studies, she was actively engaged in academic life — representing Cambridge in tennis, participating in official visits to Saudi Arabia, delivering two speeches at the Cambridge Union, and speaking at TEDx Batory High School. She has an outstanding academic record, including representing Poland at the Singapore International Mathematics Challenge, receiving the King’s College academic award, and achieving top scores in the IB (45/45), SAT (1600/1600), and GRE.
Lena is currently working at the Development Innovation Lab at the University of Chicago, where she collaborates directly with Michael Kremer on development economics projects, including clean water treatment in Sub-Saharan Africa, air filtration in schools in Colombia, and providing accurate weather forecasts to farmers in India. With the support of the Foundation, she is also able to attend Real Analysis classes at the University of Chicago, combining academic development with intensive research work. In June, she will present her undergraduate thesis at the International Energy Workshop in Cape Town — one of the leading conferences on international energy modelling.
Alongside her academic work, she is socially engaged, volunteering as a tutor at a school on Chicago’s South Side, one of the city’s less privileged neighbourhoods, where she supports primary school students in mathematics and English and helps them with their homework.