Directory

For most of us, reaching for an object, such as an apple or a pen, is something done seamlessly without requiring much thought. However, carrying out a voluntary movement requires a stream of intricate computations in the brain for planning, initiating, and executing even a simple action. Many neurological and psychiatric disorders – and also healthy ageing – can all influence these computations. My research interests lie in understanding these changes that occur across the lifespan and in cases of disease. I use behavioural tasks that tap into principles from computational neuroscience: for example the integration of different sources of information for performing an action. I combine these tasks with brain imaging methods, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, which allows me to examine the activity and connectivity of brain networks. My ongoing research following my PhD at Cambridge looks at the effect of age on the brain's motor system. Ageing is typically associated with increased variability in performance across individuals. My research endeavour, therefore, is to find the markers that not only predict healthy ageing, but also those that identify the brain changes that put people at risk to their well-being. Alongside research, I work in clinical psychiatry at Cambridge and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust.

Links

http://www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/directory/profile.php?nw305
https://psyact.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/noham-wolpe-51577472

Studying at Cambridge enhanced my analytical reasoning and writing skills, which I use daily in the law.

I am a researcher, evaluator, and consultant for the arts and cultural sector. Currently, I work as Senior Manager, Children, Young People, and Learning at Arts Council England, where I play a key role in developing strategy and policy on creative and cultural education. I am also a Trustee of Magpie Dance, a charity empowering people with learning disabilities through inclusive dance programmes.

As a developmental psychologist and gender researcher, I study various aspects of human development with an emphasis on gender, based on theories involving socialization, cognitive development, hormones and genes. What fascinates me most is how socio-experiential factors magnify small inborn gender differences and how much the two genders have been misunderstood. I have researched causes of behavioral masculinization in females with a disorder of sex development, as well as the development and causes of preferences for sex-typed color and toy preferences in typically-developing children. In the latter study, I also explored whether reversing the sex-typicality of colors of sex-typed toys could lead to more flexible play patterns in boys and girls. Currently, I am conceptualizing ways to help females catch up with males on visuo-spatial abilities through early experiences, as well as media portrayal of gender differences and its effect on parenting and education practices.

I am a pianist, harpsichordist and conductor studying Performance Studies in the Music Faculty at Cambridge. My current and former research interests have included translation studies, musical transcription, 20th-century French music, musical memory, time, mathematics, and the mind. As a performer, my interests run the gamut from historically informed performance, to experimental/multidisciplinary concert experiences, to promoting works by female composers. I hold a BA in Mathematics&Philosophy from Yale College, and a MMus in Piano Performance from the Yale School of Music. www.naomiwoo.com

Previous Education

University of Western Australia

My work focuses on the role of culture and media, broadly defined, in human rights advocacy. I'm also interested in information warfare, and the ways in which technology is changing international affairs.

I grew up in the snowy Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York. At Cambridge, my PhD research will explore how the British police handle hate crimes, with an emphasis on hate crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. I intend on using my research to improve hate crime policing within North America and the European Union. In 2012-13, I will take a year off from Cambridge to brush up on my country-western dance moves in Texas and serve as a judicial clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. After graduate school, I hope to enter academia and be involved in making public policy on criminal sentencing, criminal procedure, and law enforcement related issues.

I have a degree in biochemistry but have spent most of my research hours studying the cytoskeleton and searching for drugable targets of small molecules. I plan to complete my doctorial studies investigating duplicate genes on a functional level and deciphering their evolutionary role. Besides research, I'm interested in the relationship between science-business and the way in which this relationship influences the economy.

Christina Woolner is a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow, working on a project titled “The poetry of politics and politics of poetry: transforming political subjectivities in Somaliland.”

Dr. Woolner recently completed her PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, where she wrote a dissertation titled The Labour of Love Songs: Voicing Intimacy in Somaliland. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork with poets, musicians, singers, music-lovers and love-suffering audiences in Hargeysa, her dissertation explores how love songs distill, perform and open space for intimacy – in the way they are produced, circulated, debated, listened to, performed, and put to work in public and private settings. Her dissertation paid particular attention to the way that different ideas about the voice, and different practices of voicing intersect to enable intimate relationships and subjectivities.

Dr. Woolner’s current research project takes her interest in voice and voicing into the realm of Somali political orature. In what is often called a “nation of poets”, she will be focusing on a recent poetry debate chain known as “miimley” – a series of poems that criticized and defended Somaliland’s government – to explore gendered and generational shifts in ideas of “voice”, subjectivity and political belonging.

Dr. Woolner’s current research builds on a long-held interest in the role of storytelling and voice in war and peacebuilding processes. She has worked as an instructor/lecturer in peace and conflict studies at universities in Canada and Somaliland, as well as a researcher at Project Ploughshares, a Canadian NGO that monitors armed conflict and the armaments industry. She holds a BA in Global Studies and Religion & Culture (Wilfrid Laurier University), an MA in International Peace Studies (University of Notre Dame), and an MPhil in Social Anthropology (Cambridge).

I grew up in southern California and attended Duke for my undergraduate studies. I started out in biology, researching the genetic regulation of skin cancer and spending my summers with kids affected by cancer. I transitioned to philosophy out of a desire to explore, not just the functioning of disease, but also the nature of our attempts to mitigate it. My PhD examined one such attempt, the early detection of cancer though screening, an issue that cuts across public health ethics, political philosophy, and philosophy of medicine. We can ask of screening: what are the benefits and harms, and how can we distribute them justly throughout the population? What sorts of ethical obligations shape how we communicate about cancer? What are the ultimate aims and limits of medicine? Answering these questions is central to developing ethically sound and effective health policies. Apart from research, I competed for the Cambridge University water polo team, and co-captained the team in 2016-2017. After Cambridge, I attended medical school at Brown, and am currently a Psychiatry resident at the Brigham and Women's Hospital / Harvard Medical School program.

Previous Education

Duke University
University of Cambridge

Previous Education

Arizona State University B.S. in Biochemistry 2010

Growing up, I not only gained a deep appreciation for cultural diversity through living in four different countries (China, Australia, Canada, and the USA), but also became motivated by my fascination with the study of life to discover new knowledge. My innate curiosity and passion for scientific research led me to pursue a B.S. in Bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology, where I gained cutting-edge insights into complex modern diseases and pursued extensive investigations to find therapies for leukemia and diabetes. At Cambridge, my MPhil in Clinical Science (Translational Medicine and Therapeutics) will provide me with valuable knowledge and training in applying knowledge of disease mechanisms to guide powerful therapeutic drug development. I will gain an ideal foundation to become a physician-scientist, translating my research findings into more effective healthcare and providing people with the knowledge and treatments to battle their diseases.

The Gates Cambridge Scholarship enables me to pursue my intellectual aspirations at an internationally renowned university. In Cambridge I have an opportunity to meet leading scholars, from all over the world. This will allow me to explore global trends in mathematics education with a critical reflection on how the best of these may be incorporated into curriculum practice in South Africa. In my PhD study I seek to investigate South African teachers’ practice in terms of the opportunities offered for the South African students to learn mathematics.

I am grateful to the Gates Trust for their support in this difficult but exciting journey. In my Ph.D. project in Biochemistry I explored the structure and function of Methy-CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2) and it's domains. Currently, I live in Philadelphia and work as a medical communications scientist at Synchrogenix Information Strategies Inc.