Directory

My academic career has been driven by a dual passion for language and the brain. Pursuing degrees in neuroscience and Korean at the Georgia Institute of Technology made me curious about how language is acquired and processed neurally. While my experience as a student of Korean inspired questions about language, time spent in neuroscience courses and laboratories taught me about the tools needed to answer those questions. Now, I intend to investigate the neural underpinnings of speech perception at Cambridge’s MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. My goal is to research the ways in which our brains deal with ambiguous speech. As anyone who has learned a new language will attest, it can be exceptionally difficult to identify the words produced by native speakers. In addition, myriad factors—such as a loud environment, accented speech, or unfamiliar vocabulary—can make fulfilling one’s role as a listener more difficult even in one’s native language. By discovering what scenarios allow for optimal word learning, I hope to inform more effective methods in language pedagogy. I am beyond honored to be joining the Gates Cambridge community and look forward to meeting my fellow scholars at Cambridge.

Previous Education

Georgia Institute of Technology Korean Studies 2021

I am a journalist and writer from Los Angeles. My work explores the relationship between my generation’s environmental and technological inheritances. As an undergraduate at Princeton, I used breaks to embed with scientists in Alaska, visiting the largest glacier in the American Arctic, living off-grid in winter to research permafrost, and walking and packrafting across the Brooks Range to study the boreal forest’s poleward migration. After graduating in 2020, I received a Luce Scholarship to study the climate crisis in Nepal, but after the pandemic derailed my plans there, I instead reported on the economic and health impacts of COVID-19. My writing has appeared in the LA Times, National Geographic, Smithsonian, Scientific American, Literary Hub, Washington Post, and other publications. I am now writing a narrative nonfiction book — equal parts adventure, science, cultural criticism, and nature writing — that recounts my journeys into the Alaskan wilderness to study climate change and shed light on digitally induced blindspots in my generation’s environmental consciousness. As a PhD candidate in Polar Studies at Cambridge, I plan to continue exploring these questions under the mentorship of Professor Michael Bravo. In my free time, I run trails, surf, and volunteer as an ocean therapist.

Previous Education

Princeton University English 2020
University College London English 2018

My experience in life taught me not to conform with the stereotypes imposed by those in power. I believe that every person can achieve greatness and should be allowed to fulfill their dreams. Being a Mexican, I see science as the means to take down the walls built by those trying to divide us, empower people to make informed decisions and appreciate that all lives have equal value. My passion for science transformed into a deep curiosity to understand our universe and the conditions that allowed for our existence. My desire to understand the world took me from Mexico to Canada where I became the first person at the University of Calgary to finish two majors in physics and astrophysics in four years. Later, I joined Dr. Rachid Ouyed and his group to study the Quark Nova, its astronomical signatures and implications. Now in Cambridge, I am honoured to join Dr. Nikku Madhusudhan and his group in studying and characterizing the atmospheres of exoplanets. We are as close as we have ever been to understanding our place in the universe and the uniqueness of our existence. The quest for habitable planets thrills me and I believe that this excitement is shared with the rest of humanity. My path to becoming a Gates-Cambridge scholar has not been linear and I owe a large amount of gratitude to every person who believed in me and helped me become who I am. I hope this opportunity will allow me to inspire others to pursue their goals and create scientific opportunities in Latin America.

Previous Education

University of Calgary

Links

https://luiswelbanks.com

I completed my BA studies in 2005 at Sydney University, with Honours in English and Semiotics. While studying Systemic Functional Grammar, I was involved in research grant projects using Multi-Modal Discourse Analysis to analyse facial affect and expression in children’s literature, and as a research assistant studying the semiotics of embodiment in public political discourse. I work particularly in the field of stylistics, which is the use of linguistics in literary analysis. My PhD examines three modalities of social construal and research: modernist poetry, functionalist and materialist linguistics and linguistic theory, and marxist and critical theory. I intend to analyse the poetry of Louis Zukofsky, the linguistic theories of Volosinov and Hjelmslev, and the marxian and critical theories of Lukacs and Jameson. After my PhD, I'd like to enter the academy to teach and research in this area.

What happens to the neurons in the brain? Why do they fail with age? Neurons have always been the centre of attention in the field. However emerging evidence shows how important certain sideline players are in shaping neuronal responses. Astrocytes are cells within the brain that provide neurons with the energy they need and a map for building new connections. They are also key in determining which neurons survive and which will die in the context of disease, but how they decide this is still unknown.

Since my undergraduate studies in Veterinary Medicine, undertaken at the University of Cambridge, I have been drawn towards the unknown. The extent of the knowledge left to discover in neuroscience and the rate at which the field is evolving drove me to pause my clinical studies to pursue a PhD in Dr. Lakatos’ lab. During this PhD, I will investigate the astrocytic response to injury and neurodegeneration. By looking at the evolution of this response through time in human stem cell cerebral organoids, I hope to reveal pathways that we may be able to target, to promote neuroprotection in cases of traumatic brain injury and/or neurodegeneration.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge Clinical Neurosciences 2019
University of Cambridge Neuroscience II/MVST Vet IA,IB 2017

Growing up in New Jersey, my fascination with problem-solving and innovation inspired me to study chemical engineering at Villanova University. I graduated Summa Cum Laude with awards for being at the top of my chemical engineering class as well as Villanova's College of Engineering. Engineering aims to elucidate vast systems by developing elegant solutions to scientific problems, and I have directed this ability toward my studies in biology and bioengineering. I became interested in regenerative medicine after being exposed to stem cell-based therapies at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and by working on my undergraduate thesis in gene therapy to analyze how different genetic elements affected the uptake and expression of a plasmid vector in cancer cells. Regenerative medicine has tremendous potential for personalized treatment of a vast array of diseases. For my PhD in Surgery at the University of Cambridge, I will explore stem cell therapies for degenerative diseases, with a focus on correcting and differentiating induced pluripotent stem cells into specialized tissues. I believe in providing modern medicine to people around the world and eliminating prevalent diseases that cause countless deaths each year. I attribute my focus and perseverance to my training in Tae Kwon Do, which I began when I was 6 years old. My martial arts mentors and family members have provided guidance at every step of my journey. I am honored to join the Gates Cambridge community, whose scholars exhibit my same dedication to excellence and desire to see the world become a better place.

Previous Education

Villanova University

Rebecca Wexler works on data, technology, and criminal justice. She has published with The Stanford Law Review, The Berkeley Technology Law Journal, The Yale Law Journal Forum, and The Yale Journal of Law & Technology. Her work challenging the trade secret evidentiary privilege in criminal proceedings has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Monthly, Slate, and NPR's The Takeaway. Rebecca is currently a law clerk to the Honorable Katherine Polk Failla of the Southern District of New York, and previously clerked for the Honorable Pierre N. Leval of the Second Circuit. She is a graduate of Harvard College, Cambridge University, and Yale Law School. She has worked as a Yale Public Interest Fellow at The Legal Aid Society's criminal defense practice and a Lawyer-in-Residence at The Data and Society Research Institute. Rebecca will begin as an Assistant Professor of Law at the U.C. Berkeley School of Law in 2019.

Previous Education

Harvard University

"Can we print a functional intestine?" This was my first question when I saw how living cells were printed with a 3D printer. It's perhaps oddly specific, but due to Hirschsprung disease, a large part of my intestine was removed when I was a baby, and I spent countless days in the hospital. Therefore, I know how advances in science and technology can dramatically increase patients' quality of life, and these experiences formed my research interest. I first studied physics engineering at the RheinMain University, and then, during my Masters at the University of Freiburg, I fell in love with the field of biofabrication, which also led me to research at Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School. In Cambridge, I will investigate how we can utilize bioprinting to fabricate multi-organ-on-chip systems which potentially can be used for personalized medicine. Next to science, I am passionate about higher-education politics. I believe everybody, regardless of their social and economic background, should have the same opportunities for an education, which is simply not the case yet. I am incredibly honored to join the Gates Cambridge community and deeply grateful to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for their support.

Previous Education

Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg Microsystems Engineering 2022
Hochschule RheinMain (HSRM) Physics Engineering 2018

I received my Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the United States Naval Academy. While at the Academy, I quickly became accustomed to the discipline of a military lifestyle and was introduced to the technical advances of the US submarine force. I was intrigued by the way the US Submarine force uses nuclear energy to power their vessels. This program paved the way for safe and reliable nuclear power and quickly sparked my interest in nuclear engineering. While at Cambridge, I will be studying for an MPhil in Nuclear Energy. Currently, conventional reactors produce large amounts of radioactive waste that can be harnessed for future power production. I intend to research the next generation of nuclear reactors and their ability to utilize this spent fuel discarded from our current reactors. I recognize that our world must soon find a resource for clean energy, and I believe it can be found in nuclear power. The technical expertise from this degree alongside my future service in the military places me in a unique position to aid the nuclear community’s efforts to more effectively utilize power from all nuclear sources. I look forward to pursing my passion at Cambridge through the Gates Scholars Program.

Previous Education

United States Naval Academy

My PhD is focussed on developing new tools to study the biology of proteins integral to cancer metastasis. More specifically, I am using peptide aptamers that bind to the matrix metalloproteinase MT1-MMP, that is over-expressed in many cancers, to try to discover novel functions of MT1-MMP. I am also interested in other aspects of science, namely science journalism, and in using the skills I have acquired during my PhD in other disciplines.

As early as I can remember, I dreamed of becoming a paleontologist. As my scientific interests expanded, I envisioned myself in a variety of different fields, but still wondered paleontology was actually where I belonged. During my second year at McGill University, I had the chance to join a field course in paleontology. After shoveling through sixteen tons of rock, I found a tyrannosaurid tooth and thought, 'I was born to do this.' Later, my interest in science outreach led me to the National Park Service, where I worked at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and Grand Canyon National Park. I began my MPhil at Cambridge in October 2019, and created an atlas of tinamou wing musculature using CT scans. Tinamous are the only flighted members of the Palaeognathae (ostriches and kin), the sister clade to all other modern birds. As a PhD student, I will use data from this project to reconstruct the ancestor of palaeognaths. Reconstructing this ancestor will shed light on the common ancestor of modern birds and help explain their extraordinary diversification into thousands of species. I am delighted to join this incredible community and continue my research at Cambridge as a Gates scholar.

Previous Education

McGill University Honours Biology 2017

How and why do judges quote prior judgments when drafting new ones? This simple question is the driving force of my PhD project that offers a comparative analysis of judicial referencing in England and Germany from a historical perspective. After stumbling upon a little-known but enlightening piece by the Russian linguist Michail Bachtin, I realised the potential of linguistic methods for scrutinizing the language of the law. Building upon the training in Philology and Law I received in Berlin, Freiburg (both Germany), St. Petersburg (Russia), and Krakow (Poland), I suggest an interdisciplinary framework for the study of judicial referencing that will help to address fundamental challenges of the judiciary in the 21st century. When not promoting educational equality in academia or advocating the rights of refugees and migrants, I enjoy the world’s cultural diversity by diving into, among other things, the realm of pop music in various languages.

Previous Education

European University St Petersburg Philology and Art History 2023
Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg Russian and German Studies 2021
Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg Law 2020

As an undergraduate studying Chemistry at Barnard College, I developed an interest in manipulating cellular structures and surroundings to improve global health outcomes. Before college, I had witnessed major disparities in health care while traveling abroad as an artistic swimmer for Team U.S.A., inspiring me to study ways to increase access to medicine: Diseases do not have geographic borders; everyone deserves treatment. I furthered my studies after Barnard as a Fulbright Scholar in Romania and through subsequent studies in the Chemical Engineering Department at Columbia University. During my PhD in Chemistry, I will explore the transportation of nucleic acids into cellular environments. This delivery of materials is fundamental to achieving targeted health treatments, including therapeutics, CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, and vaccines. With this research, I seek to address not only crucial scientific questions, but also gaps in international medical care, where stable and easily transportable therapeutics are crucial in ameliorating health disparities. In the lab, I feel an overwhelming sense of comfort, curiosity, and responsibility; I look forward to the opportunity to enact change as a part of the Gates Cambridge community.

Previous Education

Columbia University Chemical Engineering 2021
Columbia University Chemistry 2019

With a diverse career in research and consulting that has spanned the US, the UK, Singapore and Australia, Abby has conducted research, program evaluation and communications work across a range of projects and clients. This includes designing and teaching courses in the fields of psychology and criminology at Cambridge, conducting behavioural research with cotton-top tamarin monkeys at Harvard’s Cognitive Evolution Lab, conducting doctoral research as a part of Cambridge University’s Prisons Research Centre and serving on the board of a venture capital firm.
​In her role as a consultant, she has worked to develop and test professional development frameworks for Australian universities, to evaluate the impact of school nutrition programs in the ACT, and to study the impact of ‘green’ design, architecture and programming in prisons. Abby directs grant-writing for a Hospice and Palliative Care organisation, and is on the board of the Australian African Foundation for Retention and Opportunity (AAFRO), a not-for-profit organisation that works to provide holistic social and educational support for young people of African descent in Melbourne.

I grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and recently graduated from Reed College with a BA in English literature. In 2011, I received a Fulbright grant to Montenegro, where I taught English language and composition in the public university system and helped to coordinate education and outreach programs at American Corner Podgorica. I missed being a student, though, and am glad to be headed back to the stacks. My primary research interests include law and literature; nineteenth-century women's writing; the intersection of cultural studies and narrative theory; and the Victorian novel. I am especially looking forward to exploring the Cambridge archives, which contain materials relating to the unorthodox family arrangements of early feminist, queer, and social reform communities.