{"id":77679,"date":"2026-04-15T17:26:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T00:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=77679"},"modified":"2026-04-15T17:26:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T00:26:35","slug":"jacks-in-a-flash-alexander-shenkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/jacks-in-a-flash-alexander-shenkin\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacks in a Flash: Alexander Shenkin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alexander\u00a0Shenkin<\/span><\/b>, an assistant research professor\u00a0in\u00a0the School of Informatics, Computing<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0and Cyber Systems, was named a Henry Arnhold Fellow by the Mulago Foundation. This international fellowship is given to founders who are addressing the problems of climate and poverty in creative, sustainable, scalable ways.\u00a0Shenkin\u00a0talked to The NAU Review about his work, SelvaFlux, and the problem he aims to address.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Briefly describe the work the Mulago Foundation does.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Mulago Foundation finds leaders with scalable solutions to climate,\u00a0conservation\u00a0and poverty, then backs them with funding, coaching and a powerful peer network. Each year they select\u00a0roughly 20\u00a0fellows across their two fellowship programs from thousands of applicants. Fellows receive an unrestricted $100,000 grant plus a year of intensive strategy workshops and mentorship designed to help them take what works and make it go big. The fellowship also serves as the\u00a0on-ramp\u00a0to Mulago’s longer-term funding portfolio.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why did you apply for the fellowship?\u00a0Please share the project as well.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

SelvaFlux is built on a\u00a0discovery\u00a0my collaborators and I published in Nature in 2024<\/a>:\u00a0Trees remove atmospheric methane through microbes living in their bark.\u00a0That’s\u00a0a climate benefit forests have been providing all along, but nobody had quantified it or figured out how to include it in forest carbon economics. SelvaFlux is building the measurement tools, data infrastructure, and carbon-market certification pathway to change that. The potential: making reforestation and conservation projects 20 to 30 percent more financially\u00a0viable, especially in the tropics, so more forests get restored and protected.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I applied to Mulago because they specialize in exactly the challenge we face right now: taking a proven scientific concept and designing it for impact at scale. Their frameworks for scaling, plus the network of 250+ fellows working on climate and conservation, are precisely what SelvaFlux needs as we move from\u00a0methodology\u00a0development to commercial deployment.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How does it feel to be chosen for this prestigious fellowship?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s\u00a0an honor; Mulago selected just 22 fellows this year from\u00a0more than\u00a04,000 applicants. More than anything, it feels like validation that\u00a0the science\u00a0is ready for the real world.\u00a0I’m\u00a0excited to use the fellowship to sharpen SelvaFlux’s strategy for scale and to\u00a0represent\u00a0NAU as we turn rigorous forest science into practical climate solutions. And\u00a0I’m\u00a0looking forward to learning alongside a cohort of people who are just as obsessed with impact as we are.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alexander\u00a0Shenkin, an assistant research professor\u00a0in\u00a0the School of Informatics, Computing,\u00a0and Cyber Systems, was named a Henry Arnhold Fellow by the Mulago Foundation. This international fellowship is given to founders who are addressing the problems of climate and poverty in creative, sustainable, scalable ways.\u00a0Shenkin\u00a0talked to The NAU Review about his work, SelvaFlux, and the problem he aims…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":77700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1830],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-staff","category-jacks-in-a-flash"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}