Directory

Through my travel experiences in Romania and Southeast Asia, I realized how the environment critically determines human development conditions, such as health, safety, and economy. My passion for climate change mitigation motivated me to study Civil & Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, where I quickly recognized the multitudinous benefits of renewable energy solutions. During my summer internship at the World Bank, I discovered how clean energy could help low income countries become energy independent, improve human quality of life, and reduce global carbon emissions. As an MPhil in Energy Technologies at Cambridge, I seek to address the trade-offs of deploying bioenergy in the transport sector, investigated through the lens of environmental sustainability and energy efficiency. I am honored to be joining the community of Gates Cambridge scholars and look forward to exploring the applications of energy technologies towards global development.

Previous Education

Princeton University

Growing up in Kyrgyzstan during the fall of the Soviet Union, I developed a strong interest in the economic issues of countries striving to lift themselves out of poverty. I decided to major in Economics and Political Science and to take advantage of the excellent classes on development and transition economies offered at my university, Wellesley College, MA, USA and while on my junior year abroad at the University of Oxford, UK. Over the course of my studies, I explored policies aimed at stimulating growth of businesses and wrote my undergraduate thesis on determinants of enterprise performance in Russia and other transition economies. At the University of Cambridge, I intend to continue my research on the role of public policy in enterprise development. Ultimately, I hope to become a professional economist and contribute to the improvement of business performance and market competitiveness in transition economies.

As a Korean American raised in Boise, Idaho who dreamed of becoming a lawyer, I never imagined that a few of my first friends at Emory University would be Tibetan monks, or that I would ultimately pursue an academic concentration in Neuroscience and Ethics. During my time at Emory, and while completing my MPhil at the University of St Andrews, I was exposed to the interdisciplinary nature of neuroscience as well as the growing field of neuroethics. My diverse research experiences as well as remarkable mentors have cultivated my ambition to research and apply translational neuroscience to enhance human wellbeing while raising awareness regarding the ethical, legal, and social implications of neuroscientific research. My PhD at University of Cambridge's MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit will investigate the neurophysiological underpinnings of resilience in children growing up in poverty, with the motivation that achieving wellbeing is a global endeavor. The overarching aims are to better understand the neural mechanisms underlying this adaptive trait for conquering extreme stress and adversity and to translate our findings for interventions and policies to promote resilience in children from all backgrounds. It is an absolute honor to receive the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, and I am thrilled to become a part of this global community as well as to learn from this inspirational group of individuals.

Previous Education

Emory University
University of St Andrews

My planned research centres on the pressing questions of why certain people engage in corruption when its consequences can ultimately deprave the political system, rig the global economy and ruin the environment. And why do some refuse to?To answer these questions, I will explore the interplay of personal and situational factors in an experimental bribery game. Little can be done against corruption without a nuanced understanding of its causes. Through unpacking an individual-level mechanism of corrupt decision-making, I wish to respond to the ever-growing demand for evidence-based anti-corruption strategies.After observing how my home country’s newly-won democratic institutions were gradually eroded by political venality from 2015 onwards, with an ensuing deterioration in its Corruption Perception Index position, I began to focus my research on the subject. As it is by no means a merely regional problem, I plan to collect my data in under-researched jurisdictions of the Global South with the aim of studying the phenomenon in some of the societies it most affects.I am thrilled to join this global network dedicated to bettering the lives of others and profusely thank Gates Cambridge Trust for their generous support.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge MPhil in Criminology 2023
University of Heidelberg German and European Law 2021
Jagiellonian University Law 2019

Previous Education

Yale University

I am the proud daughter of an immigrant single mother. My extended family’s experiences with incarceration inform my worldview and push me to dedicate my career to ameliorating the American criminal justice system. As an undergraduate student at American University, I had the delight of serving the D.C. community through varied volunteer positions, including interning with Public Defenders’ offices and supporting local homeless outreach efforts. In these spaces, I learned from the firsthand experiences of justice-involved people, leading me to start ZeEntry, a nonprofit organization dedicated to closing the tech gap in the criminal justice system by connecting justice-involved individuals to Gen Z volunteers. During my MPhil in Criminology at Cambridge, I will study the policies that influence international criminal justice systems and consider how they might be improved to the benefit of all members of society. I am deeply honored to join the Gates Cambridge community as we collectively strive to contribute to a better world.

Previous Education

American University Washington Political Science 2023

As the daughter of Mexican immigrants, my connection to Latin America started long before I was born. My family members were the first to plant the seeds of my interest in “philosophies of hope” that I would cultivate during my undergraduate career in Latin American Studies and Spanish at Washington University in St. Louis. In a time when democracy’s future seems uncertain, the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship allowed me to engage in deep studies of social movements, rekindling my faith in the powerful possibility of collective change. At the root, I am intrigued by social movement theory and particularly, transnational and transracial/transethnic social movements in Latin America. During the MPhil in Latin American Studies at Cambridge, I hope to research how anarcho-punks in Brazil and Mexico use art and music to mobilize their subculture, align themselves with political movements, and educate their surrounding communities. As a current and future educator, I see it as my civic duty to unearth these stories of youth coming together to make a change in society. In addition to my studies, I will collaborate with youth development organizations, local libraries, and museums to put my research into practice. It is an incredible honor to join the Gates Cambridge community.

Previous Education

Washington University Latin American Studies 2023

With a background in literature and journalism, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the gap between public ideas of science and how scientists think about their own work. My PhD will build on this idea through a history of climate science in Antarctica, a continent frequently depicted as a 'blank' for science to fill in. The past half-century of scientific attempts to map, measure, and model the seventh continent have led to the current "deep uncertainty" in IPCC projections of sea-level rise. The efforts to confront uncertainty in Antarctic oceans and ice sheets form an important chapter in the still-unfolding history of climate science, and I am honored and excited to have the opportunity to carry out this work as a member of the Gates community.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge History and Philosophy of Scie 2020
Yale University English, Creative Writing 2013

I completed my PhD at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, working on a potential biomarker of mitochondrial dysfunction relevant to Parkinson's Disease. I now work in drug discovery research, utilising my mitochondrial biology and ubiquitin-related skills in early-stage target discovery and validation in neurodegenerative disease.

I am interested in the intersection of health, economic development, and urban planning. These interests are informed by my upbringing and my professional experiences serving as an advocate for civil legal justice at CUNY Law. At Cambridge, I studied the impact of urban governance on documented and undocumented migrant communities.

I am currently a PhD Candidate in Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge and a 2020 Gates Scholar. My research examines how technology is impacting historic forms of state and corporate power. I also host a weekly podcast The Anti-Dystopians, the politics podcast about tech.
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I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I received my BA from Stanford University in History and the Law with a minor in Human Rights and honors in Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. I received my MA in Conflict Transformation and Social Justice from Queen’s University Belfast as a 2017 Marshall Scholar, where my master’s research examined how new technologies were impacting policing and the nature of state control in Northern Ireland. My undergraduate honors thesis focused on the impact of transitional justice on communities transitioning out of conflict, specifically in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I have worked at the Center for Human Rights and International Justice and the Stanford Global Studies Division at Stanford University, the BrexitNI Law Clinic in Northern Ireland, the Asian International Justice Initiative in Phnom Penh, the Balkan Institute for Conflict Resolution, Responsibility and Reconciliation in Sarajevo and the US State Department in Washington D.C.

Previous Education

Queen's University Belfast Conflict Transformation 2018
Stanford University History 2017

Links

http://www.alinautrata.com

Growing up in Bejuma, Venezuela, I witnessed how the unreliable energy system of the country threatened food supply, health care facilities, public transportation, and access to clean water. These factors contribute to widespread poverty, rising death tolls, and a mass displacement of refugees in countries that experience similar crises. After obtaining a BSc in Chemical and Biological Engineering at Colorado State University, I developed a fascination for the beauty of chemical processes and their power to deliver uncompromised and sustainable energy access. This is important because I believe every person deserves safe and renewable energy to enjoy a high quality of life. During my Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, I will investigate liquid hydrogen production and commercialization as an alternative to decarbonize the aviation sector and manage climate change. The process will be challenging and intriguing because of the difficulties of handling and storing hydrogen within aviation constraints, minimizing boil-off, and addressing the safety of hydrogen in the liquid state. This research will address energy scarcity, climate refugees, and ultimately improve the lives of people in the most vulnerable regions of the world.

Previous Education

Colorado State University Chemical and Biological Eng 2021

This past year has certainly been a life altering and exciting one! It began by ushering in 2010 while paddling a dugout canoe in remote Sulawesi, undertaking a self-founded Australian Geographic sponsored expedition to raise awareness about living sustainably with fragile environments. After recovering from dengue fever it was off to South America to cycle through Patagonia and explore as much of the continent as possible, partially offsetting the costs by freelancing for Australian Geographic Outdoor magazine. However one of my most significant events of the year has been the generosity afforded to me by the Gates Cambridge Trust. The scholarship they have awarded me is now allowing me to do what I dreamed of: to study a PhD examining cooperative hunting and cognition at Cambridge. This is an immense privilege, and I plan to use what I learn to help positively influence public attitudes towards our world's imperiled natural environment.

Mathematics suits how my brain works: I enjoy connecting concepts, much like trails and paths connect places on a map. In my studies at the University of Genova, I have developed a strong interest in harmonic analysis and functional analysis, which represent an exciting fusion of analytic questions, algebraic tools, and topological substrates. Upon completing my Master’s degree with a thesis in time-frequency analysis within the University of Vienna’s Applied Harmonic Analysis cluster, I am thrilled to commence my journey in Cambridge and join the Applied Functional and Harmonic Analysis group. Despite my attraction to abstract theory, I am fascinated by how pure mathematics is utilised to investigate problems related to concrete applications, and the AFHA research team embraces this approach. I aim to contribute actively and dynamically to the Cambridge and Gates communities, and to be inspired by the exchange of knowledge and ideas between their members.

Previous Education

Universita Degli Studi di Genova Mathematics 2024
Universita Degli Studi di Genova Mathematics 2022

Born in Colombia but raised in Panama, I grew up playing with Legos. I rendered my thoughts in the form of colored bricks, building until my fingertips hurt from pushing pieces together. This passion for building translated into a love for science, which resulted in a Bachelor’s degree in Optical Engineering at the University of Rochester. During my studies I explored the ray, wave, and quantum natures of light and I fell in love with its inherent duality. There’s no absolute definition to light’s character, it depends on the context in which it interacts with its surroundings. Science and technology inspire me, and management and entrepreneurship are my driving passions. I truly enjoy working with people, especially to push forward new technologies to improve our society’s living standards. At Cambridge I will work with Professor Clemens Kaminski’s group to pioneer new trade-offs between optical and digital complexity in super resolution microscopy to better understand chemical reactions in the human body at a nanometer scale. This could allow scientists to better understand protein aggregation in the brain for early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. In the long term I want to become involved in international public policy on technological innovation and energy awareness; I want to bridge the gap between technical knowledge, management decisions, and policy making in the optics and photonics industry.

Previous Education

University of Rochester