Directory

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

Ever since my internship at the German embassy in Tajikistan in 2018, I have been fascinated by the cultural and linguistic blend of post-colonial and post-Soviet Central Asia. Building on my training as a lawyer and Slavicist from Berlin, Freiburg (both Germany), St. Petersburg (Russia), and Krakow (Poland), my research explores how international lawyers addressed the Russian colonization of Central Asia. To answer this question, I examine 19th-century legal scholarship and diplomacy pertaining to the Russian conquest of Central Asia and the status of non-Western entities under international law more broadly. While the focus is on Russian debates, I treat them as an integral part of the global history of international law and colonialism by including voices from Europe, the Americas and Asia as well. My research offers the first in-depth analysis of the legal dimension of the Russian colonization of Central Asia, yielding insights on persistent inequalities in contemporary international law and Russian neocolonialism. When not leafing through historical law journals or digging in archives, I teach and advocate the rights of refugees and migrants and enjoy cultural diversity by diving into the realm of multilingual pop music.

Previous Education

University of Freiburg Slavonic Philology (MA) 2023
University of Freiburg Russian and German Studies (BA) 2021
University of Freiburg Law (First State Examination) 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.

I am an experienced investment banker in the power and infrastructure project finance team at Rand Merchant Bank in South Africa. I also have previous experience in leveraged finance, derivatives sales (interest rate/currency/commodities), and resource finance. My deal experience includes funding renewable energy projects, transport PPPs, and brownfield expansions for corporates. I am skilled in credit/investment analysis, financial modelling (cash flow waterfall models and 3-statement models), and structured financing for private equity funds, investment holding companies, ultra high net worth individuals, and large corporations. Prior to entering investment banking I obtained a PhD in molecular biology and worked as a researcher in the fields of microbiology, synthetic biology, protein engineering, and stem cells. Prior to this I spent time in the Middle East on a Fulbright Fellowship and became proficient in Arabic (oral/written).

Previous Education

Columbia University

Before freshman year, I participated in Princeton University’s Bridge Year Program in Urubamba, Peru. During this time I shadowed a group of archaeologists from the Ministry of Culture seeking to protect Inca terraces from both tourists and local farmers alike. This paradox revealed to me the complicated mechanics of heritage; like museum displays with transparent glass, objects and sites are also encapsulated in political motives and legal decrees that remain publicly invisible. These questions motivated me to pursue Anthropology, with certificates in Archaeology, Latin American Studies, and Urban Studies. Through internships at the Penn Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I learned more about creative ways to display history and the complications that arise in doing so. With a research grant I traveled to Peru this fall to explore the aftermath of Yale’s return of artifacts to Cusco after their removal from Machu Picchu in 1911. My research analyzes a new collaborative museum between Yale and the Ministry of Culture, and to unravel the forces that dictate how the story of the artifacts is told. Through an MPhil in Archaeology in the Museum and Heritage Studies track, I hope to better comprehend how heritage politics function in museum practice, and to broaden my understanding of the role of museums both past and present in shaping public perceptions of culture.

Previous Education

Princeton University

I grew up and was educated in Zimbabwe before attending Harvard to study English and French literature. My intellectual commitments have ranged widely, but I remain interested in the novel and its ethical dimensions, as well as related periods in aesthetics, art history, and the history of philosophy. These inclinations have in turn been informed by my extracurricular engagements, including editorial service for journals and magazines, such as the Harvard Advocate, Harvard African, and the Harvard Review of Philosophy. At Cambridge, I plan to follow the MPhil in Criticism and Culture, expanding a project that began with my senior thesis on human-animal relations in the work of J. M. Coetzee. In addition, I would like to broaden my background in philosophy and the history of science. Thereafter, I hope to pursue graduate study in the humanities, alongside projects academic and otherwise on the ethical and political issues concerning our interaction with the natural world.

I received my undergraduate degree in biological anthropology and Spanish from the University of Arkansas. During my time there I conducted field research in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Tanzania as well as lab research on the dental microwear of Brazilian primates to create an extant baseline series for comparison with fossil teeth in order to infer more about the diets of possible human ancestors. I am interested in human evolutionary science and how it can be significant for issues relevant to our existence today. I am excited to continue by education at Cambridge, where I intend to focus on paleoecology and the role environmental dynamics can play in evolutionary processes, including how climate change could have affected human evolution. I also have a great interest in accurate scientific education in public schools, specifically with regard to climate change and evolution. I intend to be an advocate for thorough and unbiased scientific education throughout my career.

I grew up in rural southern Illinois and earned a Bachelor’s and an MFA in Creative Writing while building a career as an author and lecturer. My work explores the cultural and historical dimensions of horticulture through public-facing scholarship.Over the years, I developed a deep passion for archival research. My work has taken me to archives across the U.S. and the United Kingdom, as well as various historical sites and societies, where I have explored the intersections of literature, botany, and environmental ethics.During my PhD in English, I am expanding this research by examining controlled environments—glasshouses, conservatories, and container gardening—in nineteenth-century popular literature. These spaces provide insight into ecological intervention, gendered interactions with nature, and the tensions between the wild and the cultivated. Through this research, I aim to contribute to discussions on the Anthropocene, environmental stewardship, and literature’s role in shaping human relationships with nature.

Previous Education

Columbia College Chicago Fiction Writing
Emerson College Creative Non-Fiction

At Cambridge I will perform research under the supervision of Prof. Duncan Jodrell, Leader of the Pharmacology and Drug Development Group at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute. My project aims to investigate the chemosensitivity of combinations of anticancer agents using pancreatic cancer cell lines in-vitro. I am excited to begin my MPhil in Translational Medicine and Therapeutics which will best equip me with the tools and knowledge to translate my research in the lab into meaningful innovations in the clinic.

Previous Education

Emory University

Raised in Ghana by parents working in global health, I was inspired to address health inequalities. Moving to Washington D.C., I entered the diverse public school system and learned the convening power of listening and empathy. These values served me well at McGill University where I earned a First Class Honours BA in International Development. Passionate about the role of health in development, my summers were spent working on public health programs in Kenya and Nepal. Outside academics, I played McGill Varsity Soccer and co-founded a social business, Heart City Apparel, which used street art to support homeless charities in 6 countries.After McGill, I worked on global health policy for the Clinton Global Initiative and Population Services International. I then became a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon where I lived in a remote village and spearheaded malaria and HIV/AIDS programs. Working alongside and for a community foreign to my own, taught me about leadership in the context of the collective fight for health equality. I learned that the most effective way to improve the lives of others is to build their capacity to empower themselves. I am honoured to be joining the Gates Cambridge community and to be surrounded by scholars who share the common desire to make a positive impact. I hope to harness the MPhil in Public Policy to influence the global health agenda and put communities at the centre of decision-making in the era of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Previous Education

McGill University Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in International Development 2015