Directory

My choice to undertake a PhD in monetary policy is due to my deep interest in the subject and to my future career plans: Upon graduation, I would like to pursue a career as a professional economist in a central bank or international organisation. A PhD in monetary policy will equip me with the necessary knowledge, which I hope to be able to use eventually to contribute to the further development of a unified Europe.

As a California native with bi-racial British and Chinese heritage, I sensed a deep commitment to promoting exchange from an early age. My research to date has focused on two commodities—chocolate and coffee—with cross-cultural and interdisciplinary overlap. I study how these commodities are linked to broader concerns like human wellbeing and ecosystem services in the context of an evolving world. In 2011 I graduated from Wellesley College in 2011 with a B.A. in Economics and Spanish. My undergraduate thesis examined the role of cacao through the dynamically changing sociocultural history of Mexico. Upon completion of this work, I returned to Mexico to study coffee—a similar yet distinctly different commodity. Supported by a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Scholarship (2013-2014), I worked in collaboration with an ongoing interdisciplinary initiative called Café In Red at the Institute of Ecology, A.C. to understand socioeconomic considerations of small-scale coffee producers in Central Veracr

My research is on identifying and achieving synergies in mergers and acquisitions in Medical Device industry. I choose qualitative methodology for my research. In the past two years I have been to several companies (across several sectors) to do case studies to collect data.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, I am very grateful to have had teachers who from early on nurtured my passion for historical inquiry. My research to date has centred around post-imperial projects of world-making and solidarity. As an undergraduate, I investigated postcolonial economic thought in the Caribbean, with a particular focus on Michael Manley, members of the New World Group, and advocacy for the New International Economic Order. During my MPhil, I returned to the topic of the New International Economic Order, examining how various British constituencies responded to this bold programme demanding global economic reform. At Cambridge, I intend to explore an adjacent instance of postcolonial ‘world-making’ by examining how networks and expressions of Afro-Asian solidarity in support of the Black Power movement emerged and evolved – both across the Caribbean and within the United Kingdom. I hope that this research will shed light not only on how intersectional solidarity manifests and operates, but also on the implications of such historical solidarity for contemporary anti-racism movements. I am honoured to be able to pursue this research as part of the Gates Cambridge community.

I am a commercial lawyer with a nagging interest in analytic philosophy. In 2004-5, I took a break from legal practice to satisfy that interest at Cambridge. It was a pleasure and honour to study analytic philosophy at Cambridge, where the discipline was substantially invented.

Our planet is undergoing simultaneous transformations, with climate change, habitat degradation, pollution, invasive species, disease, and overexploitation posing significant threats to the environment. To truly grasp the impact of these pressures on species, it is essential to delve into their long-term implications and understand how they synergistically interact and cascade within an ecosystem. These are questions that have fascinated me since my undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan. My research in India, where I collaborated with Professor Trevor Price at the University of Chicago, examined the effects of land use change on avian communities and morphology. During my master’s degree at the University of Edinburgh, I studied a different environmental stressor - microplastic pollution. I investigated its interplay with water temperature, aiming to understand how warmer oceans might influence microplastic uptake in sponges. At Cambridge, I will pursue a PhD in Plant Sciences under Professor David Edwards. I will be studying avian communities in Borneo to unravel temporal changes within logged and pristine forests and assess how climate change might exacerbate the impacts of land degradation.

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.

Ben is a journalist and writer from Los Angeles. As an undergraduate at Princeton, he used breaks to shadow scientists in Alaska, visiting the largest glaciers 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. His forthcoming nonfiction account, North to the Future (Grand Central, July 2025), recounts a scientific, philosophical, and attentional journey to understand how one of the fastest-warming corners of the planet is changing. His writing has also appeared in the LA Times, National Geographic, Smithsonian, Scientific American, Literary Hub, Washington Post, and other publications. As a PhD candidate in Polar Studies at Cambridge, he plans to research environmental perception under the mentorship of Professor Michael Bravo. In spare time, he runs trails, surfs, and volunteers as an ocean therapist.

I studied my PhD at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge from 2017 to 2021. On August 2025 I will start my role as Assistant Professor at Arizona State University. Here is the biography I submitted as an incoming Gates Scholar. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.