Aaron Friedman-Heiman graduated from the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability and the Ross School of Business with an MS in Sustainable Systems and an MBA in 2024. During graduate school, he chaired the Michigan Climate Venture fund and was one of 34 students selected as a Dow Masters Sustainability Fellow.

Prior to graduate school, Aaron spent two years conducting applied research on technology promoting sustainable development in resource-limited communities. He then worked for three years at Rubicon Technologies as a circular economy specialist, where he designed and oversaw global food waste programs for five Fortune 500 companies, generating $18M in revenue over two years and diverting 120,000+ tons of food waste from landfills. Aaron currently serves as the Energy Markets Manager at Generate Upcycle, where he focuses on the intersection of waste management and renewable energy.

Aaron Friedman-Heiman is the lead author of the study: The impact of refrigeration on food losses and associated greenhouse gas emissions throughout the cold chain, published, open source, in May 2024 by the Environment Research Letter. The co-author of the study is Shelie Miller, Jonathan W. Bulkley Collegiate Professor in Sustainable Systems at the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan.