Directory

As a student of the society, I hope to help in mobilizing intellectual and social resources for the creation of a better world.

I am a linguist and language enthusiast who undertook my PhD at Cambridge on word-order variation in the endangered, indigenous Uralic language Lule Sámi, spoken in parts of Northern Norway and Sweden. I am currently Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer of Lule Sámi at Nord University in Bodo, Norway.

In the past year I have dedicated the vast majority of my time to my medical school training. I am in the middle of the year of core clinic clerkships and am definitely missing the more carefree days of formal halls and garden parties in Cam. In my, albeit limited, free time I enjoy spending time with my one year old dog, Rupert, and keeping as activities as I can with running, crossfit and hiking.

Having grown up in sunny, dry India I was exposed early on to issues of sustainability due to severe water shortages in my school and the surrounding regions. The capacity of science to systematically develop sustainable and renewable technologies has become apparent to me through my BSc in Physics at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai and my MASt in Physics at Cambridge. One of the most exciting areas of development is that of photovoltaics. We have so far been limited in our capacity to harness energy from the sun due to our inability to control sunlight - solar panels require direct sunlight. Harvesting diffuse light - the kind that bounces of buildings and clouds - is in some sense 'forbidden' due to the Second Law of Thermodynamics - diffuse light is 'disordered', and 'ordering' it means we reduce the entropy of the system. I plan to spend my PhD in the optoelectronics group at the Cavendish exploring ways around this limitation - through the use of Luminescent Solar Concentrators and carrier multiplication photophysics. In order to effectively study these systems and tweak their entropy management, I will explore the fundamental processes of thermalisation and localisation. Through my PhD in Physics I will strive to develop an understanding of the fundamental physics of these systems in order to eventually make a pass at efficient harvesting of diffuse light.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge Physics 2019
St. Xavier's College, Mumbai Physics 2018

I am interested in the historical evolution of modern racial categories, and the current socioeconomic repurcussions of early western encounters with the racial "other." At Cambridge I hope to explore differences in the imagery used to describe nonwhite peoples accross class lines in the late 18th century. This topic appeals to me both historically and as a way of approaching the unhealthy contemporary intersection of race and class status.

After transferring from Schreyer Honors College at PSU to University of Pittsburgh for a neuroscience degree, I helped investigate biomarkers for psychosis by processing auditory evoked potentials and brain imaging. I later conducted biochemical research on synaptic protein interaction in learning and memory formation. These experiences prepared me for the data driven, neurochemical nature of my MPhil with Mr. Adel Helmy, inspired by observing surgeries and volunteering on hospital floors with patients being treated for nervous system injuries of varying severity; I questioned the impact of neuroinflammation on outcomes. Insight into neurotrauma is urgent because of the expected increase in its global incidence and it being one of the most abrupt causes of significant disability despite preventability and treatability. My aims are to use data from the largest cerebral microdialysis-monitored cohort to elucidate post-TBI correlations between brain metabolites and outcomes to guide intervention preventing inflammation and deterioration and to progress resource-stratified clinical guidelines for neurotrauma in low- and middle-income countries where there is threefold the incidence of TBI and associated mortality.

I was raised in New Zealand, and studied science at university with the goal of doing research in condensed matter physics. During my time at Cambridge I completed part iii of the mathematics tripos, and exposure to a broad range of research topics led me to pursue a career studying living systems from a physics based perspective. For my doctoral work I am studying microbial growth, and am excited to be a part of the burgeoning field of quantitative biology.

My experiences travelling between my native country of Colombia and the United States have made me distinctly aware of the inequalities among different countries. These experiences combined with my interest in the natural environment have formed the foundation of my interest in the field of development and environment. I hope that my research at Cambridge will provide me with the tools to influence development patterns so that they become more environmentally and socially responsible.

Having grown up in India and the UK, and living in different parts of the world to seek knowledge in subjects from the theoretical and practical sciences, with teachers in the Western and Islamic scholarly traditions, my current doctoral research project is concerned with exploring the constitution of 'ilm and an 'aalim, focusing particularly on bodies and language.

From my childhood, I remember the smell of books. The shelves full of novels at my grandmother’s house, the aroma of old pages in the reading room of my primary school during winter. I like to think of my life as a series of libraries. From the surreal verticality of Biblioteca Vasoncelos, with its whale skeleton hanging from the roof, to the Maori carvings of Auckland University Library. When I think of it that way, perhaps it is not surprising that, after pursuing a degree in biotechnology in Mexico City, I ended up studying immunogenomics. Picture, for instance, Alice through the looking glass. “Here it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place”, said the Red Queen. When I read this quote, I think of the immune system. How fast must it run to keep our place in a world ruled by microbes? But the immune system does not run, it plans ahead and divides tasks. It is a community of cells that talk to each other. During my PhD in at The Sanger Institute, Cambridge I will study the immune system, using transcriptomics to link gene expression and cellular functions to genetic variation across individuals. Because I firmly believe in the transforming power of knowledge, when out of the lab I like teaching, and promoting art and science. Languages and music are my biggest passions. Monet, my favourite painter. And my dearest dream, to someday have a positive impact in Latin American society. As a Nahuatl poet once put it, “all that is true has a root”. And, to me, the desire to improve our world will always be the root from which everything else stems.

Previous Education

University of Auckland
University of Cambridge

After completing my MPhil at Cambridge, I received a PhD in history from Yale University. My dissertation, "Empire on Edge: Land, Law and Capital in Gilded Age Basra," looked at the accumulation strategies of elites in a changing legal and geopolitical context between the Ottoman, Qajar, and British Indian states. I have since returned to Cambridge for a JRF at Jesus College (2020-2023) where I am working on a project on the transnational history of concessions, and on turning my dissertation into a book manuscript.

My phd in epidemiology will focus on patterns of individual dietary ‘lifestyle choices’ and how these are influenced by multiple social determinants, particularly the contribution of the physical environment. After migrating to many cities since growing up in a small town near canada’s point pelee national park in south-western ontario, I am thrilled to be studying in cambridge with the support of a Gates Scholarship. Since completing a Master’s in Life Sciences (Edinburgh) and a Master’s in Public Health (Columbia), I have worked as a health policy analyst at Rand Europe, a not-for-profit research organisation. My goal is to develop a career in the intersection of academia and policy, working closely with communities and governments to support the translation of research evidence into preventive action for tackling disparities in population health and well-being.

I am committed to integrating theoretical, empirical and advocacy work on punishment and incarceration in order to contribute to a more humane justice system. I will be researching adolescents’ perceptions of fairness and the legitimacy of power in youth prisons, focusing on how these perceptions impact adolescents' well-being while they are incarcerated. My goal is, as an academic, to examine the broader implications of social policy, but also to tell, through empirical research, the stories of those most affected by the social policy of crime and punishment.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge MPhil in Criminology 2007
Yale University 2001

“Why do people suffer?” asked a 13-year-old boy with many passports, when he travelled and saw his privilege reflected in the eyes of the world. Born to two statistics professors he was curious about anything besides academia, and so left his Australian physics degree for the adventure of technology startups in China. He wandered to monasteries in Tibet, sat for ten days of silent meditation at the edge of a South African desert, and tried to appreciate all he was born with by working as a data scientist at Airbnb, in a gleaming office just around the corner from the tents of the homeless.

Depression clouded that young man's mind. Emerging on the other side thanks to care that so few can access, he wondered, “If even I, with all my comforts, feel such pain, perhaps Buddha was right that suffering begins in the mind?”

And so I left Silicon Valley for Cambridge to contribute what I can to depression research. Neuroscience is in a golden age, powered by technologies that link brain scans, genetics, and socioeconomics to drugs, therapy, and public policy. Yet we are challenged by the brain’s complex biology, inconsistent psychiatric diagnoses, archaic and unjust healthcare systems, and the dramatic increase in mental illness especially among youth. I am grateful for this chance to offer what I can to help others also find their way from suffering to happiness.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge Neuroscience 2021
National University of Singapore Physics 2013
Australian National University Physics 2013

Surrin is a medical doctor based at Addenbrooke's Hospital and Cancer Research UK, Cambridge Institute, with a background of undergraduate studies in Medical Physics and Bioengineering.

His research at Cambridge is translational and involves the use of MRI to image metabolism in ovarian and other cancers after the injection of tracers labelled with hyperpolarized nuclei that enhance detection by a factor of several thousand fold.

The imaging results are compared to histology and immunohistochemistry of cancerous tissue sampled by biopsy and at surgery to validate the findings of the imaging and to show that it is possible to detect cancers earlier and to non-invasively monitor the response of cancers to different treatments using hyperpolarized nuclei.