Grailer Faculty Fellow Program
The Grailer Faculty Fellow Program, offered by the Center for Hospitality Research (CHR), is designed to support tenure-track faculty at the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration conduct impactful, industry-relevant research that benefits the broader hospitality and travel industry.
To see a list of the CHR’s current funding opportunities, click here.
2026 grant recipients
Aaron Adalja
Associate Professor; Grailer Faculty Fellow, Center for Hospitality Research
Adalja’s research: How sustainability initiatives generate ROI for hotels
Adalja evaluates how sustainability initiatives in hotel development and operations generate financial returns across risk, financing, operating costs and revenue channels, and how those returns should inform investment decisions by integrating property-level data from IHG’s Low Carbon Pioneers program with broader market and industry insights.
Lauri Kytömaa
Assistant Professor; Torgalkar Faculty Fellow, SC Johnson College of Business; Grailer Faculty Fellow, Cornell Center for Hospitality Research
Kytömaa’s research: How tenant protections for long-term renters reshape housing markets and potentially create competitive pressure on hotels
Kytömaa examines how recent tenant-protection policies in New York City reshape the allocation of housing across long, medium and short-term rental markets, creating potential spillovers that affect hotel competitiveness and overall housing supply, by analyzing policy-driven shifts in housing stock, market pressures and regulatory outcomes.
Meng Qi
Assistant Professor; Grailer Faculty Fellow, Center for Hospitality Research
Qi’s research: How AI-empowered inventory copilots can reduce food waste in the Asian hospitality industry
Qi develops AI-powered inventory copilots to reduce food waste in commercial kitchens, combining predictive optimization, bias detection and generative AI interfaces to improve decision-making, build manager trust and enhance both financial and sustainability outcomes.
2025 grant recipients
Heeyon Kim
Assistant Professor
Kim’s research: Crossing Categories: The Competitive Impact of Marriott Homes & Villas on Airbnb Listings
Kim analyzes the competitive response of incumbent Airbnb hosts to the entry of extended-stay brands such as Marriott Villas within their micromarket, focusing on availability, listing attributes, communication strategies, and pricing dynamics.
Tashlin Lakhani
Assistant Professor
Lakhani’s research: Context Matters: Job Quality and Outcomes in the U.S. Hospitality Industry
Lakhani is leading the hospitality component of a comparative study on job quality and its impact on job satisfaction and turnover across hospitality, healthcare, retail, warehousing, and telecommunications. The research uses surveys and semi-structured interviews.
Ruihao Zhu
Assistant Professor
Zhu’s research: LLM for Large-Scale Automated Decision-Making in Airline Network Planning
Zhu is developing a methodology using large language models to translate managerial instructions into technical specifications for IT professionals. His pilot application focuses on airline route network design, using data from Singapore Airlines. His research projects focuses on Asian Hospitality Studies.