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Brendan Terry

  • Scholar
  • United States
  • 2020 PhD Biological Science at the Babraham Institute
  • Downing College
Brendan Terry

Brendan Terry

  • Scholar
  • United States
  • 2020 PhD Biological Science at the Babraham Institute
  • Downing College

Growing up in a family that struggled to afford the costs of managing chronic health issues, I realised that poor health and other difficult life experiences often are intertwined. At Pomona College, I studied biochemistry and began to wonder about the biochemical underpinnings of the social determinants of health, which drive global health disparities. My passion for biochemistry grew over four years in the Sazinsky lab, where I discovered the structure of an enzyme that could make better nutrition available to many more people. In other work with Dr. Calderón-Villarreal of COLEF in Tijuana, Mexico, I combined chemical and anthropological approaches to reveal the socio-environmental determinants of poor health in a population experiencing homelessness. As a PhD student in the Reik and Balasubramanian labs, I focus on the molecular processes that control which genes are turned on (or off) to regulate development because adverse life circumstances (e.g., poverty, poor nutrition, and violence) often dysregulate these very processes to cause chronic disease. I am honoured to join the Gates Cambridge community of scholars in their efforts to bend the arc of academic research toward social justice.

Previous Education

Pomona College Chemistry 2020

Yvonne Tew

  • Alumni
  • Malaysia
  • 2008 PhD Law
  • St Catharine's College
Yvonne Tew

Yvonne Tew

  • Alumni
  • Malaysia
  • 2008 PhD Law
  • St Catharine's College

Professor Yvonne Tew has expertise in constitutional law, globally and in the U.S., and law and religion in global perspective. She is a Professor of Law and Anne Fleming Research Professor at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., as well as the Faculty Director of the Center for Transnational Legal Studies in London. She is the author of Constitutional Statecraft in Asian Courts (Oxford University Press, 2020). Her scholarship has been published in the American Journal of Comparative Law, Virginia Journal of International Law, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, Cambridge Law Journal, and Washington International Law Journal, amongst others, as well as in book collections from Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Edward Elgar Publishing, and Routledge. She currently serves on the Executive Board of the American Society of Comparative Law and on the Executive Editorial Board of the American Journal of Comparative Law. She has advised international organizations and government officials on constitutional matters including judicial power, rights protection, and constitutional reform.

Professor Tew holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Gates Cambridge Scholar. Her doctoral dissertation was awarded the Distinction in Research Prize in the Arts and Humanities in 2012 by St. Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge. While at the University of Cambridge, she served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Cambridge Student Law Review. She received her first law degree from the University of Cambridge graduating with Double First Class Honors. She graduated with a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from Harvard Law School after winning the Cambridge-Harvard Law Link scholarship awarded to the top two final-year law graduates from the University of Cambridge entering Harvard Law School. She is a member of the New York state bar. Before joining the faculty at Georgetown Law, she held research fellowships at Columbia Law School and New York University School of Law.

Previous Education

Harvard University Master of Laws (LL.M.) 2008
University of Cambridge B.A. in Law (First Class Hons) 2007

Links

https://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/yvonne-tew
https://www.yvonnetew.com

Mamta Thangaraj

  • Alumni
  • India
  • 2003 PhD Physics
  • Wolfson College
Mamta Thangaraj

Mamta Thangaraj

  • Alumni
  • India
  • 2003 PhD Physics
  • Wolfson College

I am me!! The usual cliched stuff friendly,vivacious, caring,affable etc. On a serious note here is a bit about me... I am a confident and talkative person. I believe in working very hard and also having fun...a kind of balancing act! Friends say that I am full of zest for life and brimming with enthusiasm for any activity. An inquisitive and probing child, I found a soul mate in Science which answered to a great extent all my ‘whys’ ‘hows’ and ‘whens’, still leaving a few mysteries for me to fathom. My ambition in life is to be ? Someone who excels in any field she cares to follow.I would want to share my life’s experiences for it would be criminal to let it gather dust when it could benefit others, be it through teaching or research.

Arasanathan Thayananthan

  • Alumni
  • Sri Lanka
  • 2001 PhD Engineering
  • Jesus College
Arasanathan Thayananthan

Arasanathan Thayananthan

  • Alumni
  • Sri Lanka
  • 2001 PhD Engineering
  • Jesus College

William Theiss

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2016 MPhil Early Modern History
  • Clare College
William Theiss

William Theiss

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2016 MPhil Early Modern History
  • Clare College

I come from the suburbs of Chicago and attended Yale University for a BA in Comparative Literature. There I studied ancient and modern languages—especially Latin, Ancient Greek, and Biblical Hebrew—and wrote my thesis on humanists and humanism in early modern Europe. I got hooked inescapably on pedagogy when, last summer, I taught a Latin class to students in Brooklyn, New York. With Cambridge’s MPhil in Early Modern History I will investigate the history of learning in early modern Germany; as an historian I intend to address the legacy of classical humanism and the dark arts of scholarship. I am honored to be a member of the Gates community.

Previous Education

Yale University

Anne Thomas

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2018 PhD Plant Sciences
  • Newnham College
Anne Thomas

Anne Thomas

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2018 PhD Plant Sciences
  • Newnham College

I began my undergraduate degree at Brigham Young University in Utah as a Conservation Biology major with the goal of intimately understanding the natural world and contributing to its protection in the face of rapid environmental change. As I delved into research topics such as plant community shifts with climate change, I learned how crucial computational tools and approaches are in addressing the complexity of global change, and as result, added a Bioinformatics major. At the same time, doing field work in the deserts and mountains of the American West reaffirmed to me the importance of close contact with the ecosystems we seek to understand in order to better protect and manage them. As a Plant Sciences PhD candidate at Cambridge, I plan to leverage both computer modeling and empirical field approaches to predicting the biogeography and resilience of alpine plants in the face of climate change. My research aims to inform both eco-evolutionary theory and conservation efforts for sensitive alpine systems. I care deeply about cultivating our human relationship with nature, making it one of my goals as a scientist and a citizen to help engage others in conservation through outreach and education. I am thrilled to join and learn from the vibrant, interdisciplinary Gates Cambridge community as we do our part to address complex global issues.

Previous Education

Brigham Young University Utah

Thornton Thompson

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2009 MPhil Medical Sciences (Oncology)
  • King's College
Thornton Thompson

Thornton Thompson

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2009 MPhil Medical Sciences (Oncology)
  • King's College

Pursuing an MPhil in Medical Sciences (Oncology) at Cambridge will provide me with enormous academic, cultural, and personal opportunities. I will be studying in the laboratory of Dr Doug Winton, who investigates the connection between stem cell development and carcinogenesis. After completing my term I plan to pursue an MD/PhD degree with an emphasis on the interaction between cancer and the immune system.

Blake Thomson

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2015 MPhil Epidemiology
  • Darwin College
Blake Thomson

Blake Thomson

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2015 MPhil Epidemiology
  • Darwin College

I completed my undergraduate degree in Global Health and English Literature at Arizona State University. I then spent two years as a Post-Bachelor Fellow at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. At IHME, I worked primarily on two projects: the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study and Medtronic Philanthropy’s HealthRise Project. Through this work, I grew to understand the power of quantitative methodology to answer global health’s most pressing questions. Following my MPhil in Epidemiology at Cambridge, I moved to Oxford for a DPhil in Population Health with the support of a Nuffield Department of Population Health Scholarship. My DPhil research examined lifestyle risk factors (such as smoking and drinking) and premature mortality in Mexico, Cuba, and the United States.

I am now Principal Scientist, Cancer Disparities Research at the American Cancer Society. The aim of this research is to highlight opportunities to improve cancer prevention and control, particularly among groups that are falling behind. Everyone deserves to live a long, healthy, cancer-free life.

Previous Education

Arizona State University

Susanna Throop

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2001 PhD History
  • Trinity Hall
Susanna Throop

Susanna Throop

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2001 PhD History
  • Trinity Hall

Kumar Thurimella

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2020 PhD Biotechnology
  • Gonville and Caius College
Kumar Thurimella

Kumar Thurimella

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2020 PhD Biotechnology
  • Gonville and Caius College

I am a current MD/PhD student split between the University of Colorado-School of Medicine and the University of Cambridge. As an applied mathematician/software engineer turned future physician, I am excited to apply my computational and mathematical background to help in the discovery of mechanisms behind inflammatory diseases of the gut.In my PhD portion of my training in Biotechnology and Mathematics/Statistics where I work with Dr. Roisin Owens and Dr. Sergio Bacallado on developing a mathematical/statistical tools for validating bioelectronic models of the gut. Previously, I worked as a Software Engineer at Uber in San Francisco for 3 years. I have my MPhil at Cambridge working at the Sanger Institute. I completed my BS in Applied Mathematics at University of Colorado-Boulder, where I am originally from.

Previous Education

University of Colorado at Denver Medicine 2026
University of Cambridge Biological Sciences 2018
University of Colorado at Boulder Applied Mathematics 2013

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kumarthurimella
http://kumarthurimella.com

Indrasenan Thusyanthan

  • Alumni
  • Sri Lanka
  • 2001 PhD Engineering
  • Girton College
Indrasenan Thusyanthan

Indrasenan Thusyanthan

  • Alumni
  • Sri Lanka
  • 2001 PhD Engineering
  • Girton College

Elena Tiedens

  • Scholar-elect
  • United States
  • 2025 MPhil Polar Studies
  • Clare College
Elena Tiedens

Elena Tiedens

  • Scholar-elect
  • United States
  • 2025 MPhil Polar Studies
  • Clare College

As an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, I studied History with a concentration in environmental history. Throughout my time at UChicago, I became interested in the Arctic as a region that has seen the most extreme warming from anthropogenic climate change, and increasing mineral and hydrocarbon extraction. At Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute, I will continue my study of the Arctic with a specific concentration on the history of infrastructure in the Russian Arctic. I seek to explore how a wide variety of infrastructures were repurposed at the fall of the Soviet Union to build the modern Russian Arctic – and in turn, shaped the dynamics of the global Arctic in the age of climate change. I hope my work will contribute to conversations about the future of infrastructure in a climate-changed world and the dynamics of energy and extraction in the global Arctic. I am looking forward to learning from my professors and fellow students at the Scott Polar Research Institute who will enhance my understanding of the region, and its histories and cultures. I am also excited to join the Gates Cambridge community where I will be surrounded by people with boundless intellectual curiosity and a dedication to helping the world.

Previous Education

University of Chicago History

Sarah Tierney

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2004 MPhil Development Studies
  • Lucy Cavendish College
Sarah Tierney

Sarah Tierney

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2004 MPhil Development Studies
  • Lucy Cavendish College

Anke Timmermann

  • Alumni
  • Germany
  • 2003 PhD History & Philosophy of Science
  • Robinson College
Anke Timmermann

Anke Timmermann

  • Alumni
  • Germany
  • 2003 PhD History & Philosophy of Science
  • Robinson College

I have been working internationally with historic objects and cultural heritage for more than 20 years. Following my PhD in History of Science at Cambridge I held positions at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (now Science History Institute) in Philadelphia, PA; worked on the digital edition of Bess of Hardwick's correspondence at the University of Glasgow; and researched scientific manuscripts and introduced medical students to the history of their discipline at the Medical University of Vienna.

In 2013-14 I was the Munby Fellow in Bibliography at Cambridge University Library, and then launched a career as an antiquarian book specialist at one of the oldest antiquarian booksellers in London, Bernard Quaritch Ltd. Since 2018 I have been the co-founder and -owner of Type & Forme Rare Books & Manuscripts in Isaac Newton's hometown, Grantham.

I serve on the Council of the Bibliographical Society (UK) and am also a judge for the Rose Book Collecting Prize (Cambridge University) and the David Murray book collecting prize (Glasgow University). Alongside my work with institutions and collectors I also write on book history and related subject.

IN THE MEDIA

Darwin Notebooks returned:
https://www.typeandforme.com/index.php/2022/04/11/charles-darwins-notebooks/

(see also my interview with the University Librarian Dr Jessica Gardner and the Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project Prof. Jim Secord in Fine Books & Collections: https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/issue/darwin-notebooks-and-letters-reunited-anniversary-year)

Why Rare Books Matter to a Younger Generation: https://ilab.org/article/new-to-ilab-speaking-to-anke-timmermann-of-type-forme-and-why-rare-books-matter-to-a-younger-generation

Gates Cambridge mentorship programme:
https://www.gatescambridge.org/about/news/gates-cambridge-mentors-forging-bonds-and-giving-back/

Previous Education

Trinity College Dublin
Heidelberg University
University of Glasgow

Links

https://www.typeandforme.com
https://www.facebook.com/TypeAndForme

Victoria Tobolsky

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2012 MPhil Human Evolutionary Studies
  • Fitzwilliam College
Victoria Tobolsky

Victoria Tobolsky

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2012 MPhil Human Evolutionary Studies
  • Fitzwilliam College

Evolutionary science and medicine are becoming increasingly intertwined. Human bodies are not merely a product of our current biology, but also of deep evolutionary history that informs an understanding not only of how they work but why they developed this way. My main interests lie in the evolution of bipedal locomotion and how this relates to the modern human body. At Cambridge, I undertook an M.Phil. in Human Evolutionary Studies within the Division of Biological Anthropology examining evolutionary relationships between bipedality, energetics, encephalization, and cephalopelvic disproportion with the hope of applying the research to the pressing global health issue of maternal morbidity and mortality. I am also very interested in pediatrics and ontogeny, particularly in order to understand how to harness a child's natural growth patterns to treat or prevent skeletal disorders.

Caleb Todd

  • Scholar
  • New Zealand
  • 2022 PhD Physics
  • Christ's College
Caleb Todd

Caleb Todd

  • Scholar
  • New Zealand
  • 2022 PhD Physics
  • Christ's College

Understanding the deep foundations of our universe has excited me since before I can remember, and as I grew and developed, so did my affinity for science. Physics in particular has and continues to captivate me as it tackles the most fundamental principles governing the natural world. Bridging the antipodean gap from New Zealand to study for a PhD in physics at Cambridge is a childhood dream come true.My project will use state-of-the-art photonics to observe interactions between metals and molecules in real-time, giving unprecedented insights into catalysis and other essential reactions on which our world depends. Expanding our understanding in these areas can open new avenues toward improving energy efficiency and minimising waste in ubiquitous industrial processes. I hope to use the gifts granted to me to meaningfully contribute to this field.I am especially excited to live and work at the centre of a multidisciplinary intellectual and cultural hub. Grappling with critical contemporary issues requires more than just advances in physics or engineering, but the best ideas from all disciplines. As a Gates Scholar, I get to be a part of a diverse community in which this collaboration can happen, and I could not be more thrilled.

Bohdan Tokarskyi

  • Alumni
  • Ukraine
  • 2015 PhD Slavonic Studies
  • St John's College
Bohdan Tokarskyi

Bohdan Tokarskyi

  • Alumni
  • Ukraine
  • 2015 PhD Slavonic Studies
  • St John's College

As far back as I can remember, I have been captivated by poetry. As a child, I was enthralled by its otherworldly images and charming prosody. This passion, which is the ultimate definition of freedom for me, has been with me ever since. I was born and raised in Kyiv where I studied international law at Kyiv Institute of International Relations. Studying and practising law proved to be a unique experience that has significantly broadened my intellectual horizons, enabled me to develop my reasoning skills and made me aware of the possibility to directly improve the lives of others. Having gained this invaluable experience, I made up my mind to pursue my innermost passion for poetry and, more broadly, for culture and its potential to change society in the long run. The Revolution of Dignity has further ignited my determination to work on Ukrainian literature and culture. For my MPhil in European Literature and Culture at Cambridge, I have been working on twentieth century Ukrainian poetry. I am truly honoured to continue my research at Cambridge as a PhD student under the supervision of Dr Rory Finnin. In my PhD dissertation, I intend to explore the questions of selfhood and nationhood in the works of Ukrainian modernist authors, and Vasyl Stus, whose exceptional poetical self-introspection has been largely undiscovered. I also believe that my research will offer important insight into European literary Modernism, and the exploration of subjectivity and the new poetic language in twentieth century poetry.

Previous Education

National Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv
University of Cambridge

Tomas Tokovyi

  • Scholar
  • Ukraine, Israel
  • 2023 MPhil Bioscience Enterprise
  • St John's College
Tomas Tokovyi

Tomas Tokovyi

  • Scholar
  • Ukraine, Israel
  • 2023 MPhil Bioscience Enterprise
  • St John's College

I grew up in Bila Tserkva, Ukraine and at the age of 15, I was one of three students from the country to win a full scholarship to study A-level studies in the UK (HMC Projects 2017-2019).With an interest in molecular medicine, I decided to pursue BSc Biochemistry at the University of Bristol, where I was ranked as the best student (n>120) for three consecutive years.For my masters, I explored the intersection between genetics and data science at the University of Oxford where I was awarded a full-ride academic scholarship (Clarendon Scholarship). Throughout my studies, I developed a keen interest in biotechnology and enterprise..Nevertheless, as much as I am passionate about biotechnology, what I ultimately care about the most is people. After Russia invaded Ukraine, I have been leading various large-scale fundraising events and educational projects to support Ukraine.At Oxford, I became the Vice-President of the Ukrainian Society and together with friends raised over £150,000. My ultimate goal is to contribute to the reconstruction of Ukraine by developing a strong biotech community there. In the future, I hope to establish incubators for rising start-ups and inspire the next generation of young scientists.

Previous Education

University of Oxford Genomic Medicine 2023
University of Bristol Biochemistry 2022