Directory

I was born and raised in a small city - Linfen in Central China and received my Bachelor's in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from University College London. I went on to Imperial College London for my Master's in Machine Learning. From the four-year university life in the UK, I realised that I want to become a researcher and work in academia in the future. I enjoy being a researcher and publishing papers that could contribute to state-of-the-art technologies. I am very excited about starting my PhD study at Cambridge and discovering a whole new world. During my time at the University of Cambridge, I'll be working on the early detection of epidemic outbreaks under Professor Nigel Collier's supervision. I'm inspired by social media data's potential and interested in building applications that could improve our lives. The early detection of such pandemic situation could help the government in future planning, resource allocation, and diminishing the disease dissemination. I'm also interested in measuring risk perception in public. I hope to learn and contribute to Natural Language Processing techniques. I am extremely excited and honoured to be joining the Gates Cambridge community for my PhD.

Previous Education

Imperial College London (University of London) Computing (Machine Learning) 2019
University College London EEE 2018

There’s a special thrill when a difficult concept I have been trying to understand finally clicks. I chased this feeling as an undergraduate studying physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and fell in love with the mathematical rigor physics uses to explain fascinating phenomena. After starting a PhD in astronomy at Northwestern University, a research internship at the Center for Computational Astrophysics in the Flatiron Institute encouraged me to pivot towards machine learning research, leading me to leave the program with my Master's. During this internship, I worked on machine learning for astronomy and realized how impossible it is to understand the insights these models gain when treated as black boxes. This revelation sparked my passion for interpretability—breaking down what information successful machine learning models have actually learned. As a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, my research will focus on developing tools to peer inside these black boxes in physics and astronomy, with hopes to extend these methods to other fields. I am incredibly honored to join the Gates community and will work hard towards ensuring AI serves as an insightful partner in advancing scientific discovery.

Previous Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Physics
Northwestern University Astronomy

Born and raised in Zhengzhou, a city in the centre of China, I moved to Switzerland with my family at 15 years old. My interest in molecular biology arose during my undergraduate studies in biochemistry at ETH Zurich, leading to my subsequent MSc studies in structural biology. My Master thesis was focused on protein synthesis in eukaryotes and resulted in the successful determination of three novel structures, furthering our understanding of this critical biological process. For my PhD study in Dr. David Barford's lab at the MRC LMB, I will be working on the anaphase promoting complex (APC/C), a key player in regulating cell cycle transitions. Defects of the APC/C are frequently observed in different types of cancers, so I hope to ultimately understand the mechanistic details of the APC/C functions by engaging various structural and biochemical approaches. I am looking forward to tackling a challenging project at the LMB and meeting other outstanding scholars in the Gates community.

Previous Education

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich MSc in Structural Biology and Biophysics 2014
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology BSc in Biochemistry 2012

Nutrition during pregnancy is perhaps the most influential non-genetic factor for fetal development and lifelong health thereafter. Global rates of obesity are increasing at an alarming rate and with that, an increase in obesity during pregnancy. Children of obese mothers have an increased lifetime risk of developing cardiometabolic problems and psychiatric disorders. My PhD work will explore how maternal obesity affects immune activity to disrupt nutrient partitioning capabilities in the placenta. Through this, I hope to elucidate the mechanisms by which maternal obesity impacts fetal growth and offspring metabolism in order to develop targeted interventions for affected children. Developmental programing, reproductive health, and diet during pregnancy as a modifiable risk factor are internationally relevant science communications and public health issues. Knowledge must move from the laboratory into policy in order to reach health services. What’s more, relevant audiences have to understand and correctly apply this information. For these reasons, I am an active proponent to improving scientific literacy and access to education and dedicate my community development initiatives to creating such educational resources.

Previous Education

University of Toronto Reproductive Physiology 2020
University of Western Ontario Medical Sciences 2018

Previous Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology B.Sc. Mathematics 2010

Links

http://yufeizhao.com

Growing up in Austin, Melbourne, Beijing and Maryland, my life has been filled with shifting residences, but remaining unchanged is a deep curiosity for the miraculous gift of “mind” that distinguishes humans of all cultures. During my undergraduate studies in Neuroscience and Behavior at University of Notre Dame, I’ve found my passion for research in the neuroscience of consciousness and human intelligence. My PhD project at the MRC Brain and Cognition Unit investigates the neural networks associated with insight problem-solving, and I hope I can help reveal how our “intuition” works and inspire conversation across interdisciplinary fields. In an age marked by technology breakthroughs, my goal is to encourage more dialogue between neuroscience and artificial intelligence. I’m extremely honored to be part of the Gates Cambridge Scholars community, and I’m looking forward to beginning the next part of my journey with my fellow Gates Scholars and creating lasting impact on the world together.

Previous Education

University of Notre Dame Neuroscience and Behavior 2019

I grew up in Beijing, China and am currently completing my BS degree at the University of California San Diego in Biochemistry and Cell Biology. I have been fascinated by the link between genetic sequence and function ever since I first learned about the genetic code in high school. During my undergraduate studies, I investigated novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. This experience sparked my interest in immunology and also made me more aware of individual differences in genetic background as exemplified by the variability in drug response. At Cambridge, my PhD will focus on exploring the genetic specificity of the insect innate immune system at the molecular level. Invertebrate immunity is an important area of investigation, as insects are vectors for disease transmission, and they are well-characterized models for studying immunology and evolutionary biology. I hope to better understand the mechanisms linking genetic differences and susceptibility to infections, to contribute to a future of more targeted precision medicine. I am very excited to further my passion for Genetics with the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, and I am truly honored to join this vibrant community.

Previous Education

University of California,San Diego Art History/Theory/Criticism 2020

Furthering study in my chosen field up to the most advanced level is the best option and a worthwhile move in my path towards a career in engineering research. I hope that through my studies at Cambridge I can step by step reach the summit of my professional career.

I grew up in a small town in Lithuania. After high school graduation, I started my Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology at the University of Nottingham, where I grew up a lot as a personality and also further developed my interest in Biological sciences. My first exposure to scientific research was when I joined the iGEM Nottingham 2018 team. After that, I never left iGEM, and in 2020, I was selected as an iGEM ambassador for Europe supporting teams in 2020 competition and helping the iGEM community. My second important step was to join a laboratory at the University of Cambridge for the summer, where I learned all the necessary skills and decided that I want to pursue a PhD. During my PhD, I seek to understand the reactivation of neural stem cells, which has the potential to develop into therapies for brain repair after injury or neurodegenerative diseases. Becoming Gates Scholar is not only a huge honour but also a motivation to work hard towards becoming a great scientist and work even harder for the wellbeing of society.

Previous Education

The University of Nottingham BSc Hons Biotechnology 2020

Already as a school student in my hometown, Prague, I was fascinated by the ability of biological sciences to describe and even alter processes creating life itself. Moreover, I volunteered as a horse riding therapist for disabled children and witnessed their families investing hopes into scientific discoveries that could treat their children. This made me realise how powerful science is and motivated me to help others via scientific advancement. During my BSc at the University of Edinburgh I developed an interest in genetics and molecular biology. I was captivated by the speeding progress of this young field. I participated in diverse genetics research projects and spent two semesters at the University of Adelaide in Australia. These experiences enabled me to view the field from several perspectives and appreciate the wide applicability of molecular genetics with potential to impact agriculture, industry and medicine. During my MPhil at the University of Cambridge I studied axonal endoplasmic reticulum and the implications of its defects for the neurodegenerative disease, hereditary spastic paraplegia. I will continue investigating spastic paraplegias for my PhD in Cambridge Institute for Medical Research and hence pursue my long-term interest in neuroscience and human neuropathies. I aim to advance the understanding of spastic paraplegias which would enable their treatment in the future. I am honoured to do so as a member of the Gates Cambridge community.

Previous Education

The University of Edinburgh
University of Cambridge

A critical question that permeates history and the media of today is how and why people become radicalized. Radicalization can emerge on all sides of conflict and so is not merely a product of a particular ideology or demographic. By combining cognitive neuroscience and experimental psychology to study the psychological processes that underlie radicalization to an ideology or group, my PhD sought to address the gap in our understanding of the cognitive susceptibilities to internalizing a doctrine and becoming willing to harm and self-sacrifice for an ideological cause. Through this research, I hoped to bring a fresh perspective to questions which have been traditionally only dealt with in the social and political sciences, and thereby to shape interventional and educational programs aimed at identifying vulnerabilities to radicalization.

Links

https://www.leorzmigrod.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/leor-zmigrod

I was raised in Utah with a love for learning, teaching, building, and medicine. I liked to push the limits of what my community told me was possible; this led me to MIT, where I graduated in Mechanical Engineering. During a class activity at MIT, my knee was injured when a giant hamster wheel fell on top of me. This fueled my passion for studying medical challenges from a mechanical perspective. As an undergraduate, my research projects have included an assistive diaphragm for patients with respiratory muscle diseases through MIT and an implantable sensor for the brain at the University of Auckland. At Cambridge, my PhD research focuses on increasing the availability of gait analysis for injury diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring. My current research combines portable low-cost imaging techniques with biomechanical modelling to analyse motion patterns, detect abnormalities, and identify specific knee injuries in humans and dogs. This portable and low-cost method of gait analysis has the potential to enable GPs, physiotherapists, and other medical professionals to assess patient gait without the need for referral to specialized, expensive, and often overwhelmed gait clinics. This can help assess patients more quickly and reduce patient backlogs. This method will also enable at-home monitoring of patients as they recover from injuries, which can improve patient outcomes and ensure they stay on track for a normal recovery. As I pursue a PhD and academic career in biomechanics, I also want to continue mentoring and inspiring more girls to pursue their dreams in STEM fields. I am honored to be a part of the Gates Scholars community and look forward to learning and sharing all I can with this incredible group.

Previous Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Mechanical Engineering 2020

I am participating in the Part III program in Applied Mathematics at Cambridge. I'm interested in the quantitative aspects of a wide range of topics--biology, sociology, and AI. I hope to explore the synthesis of these diverse topics at a fundamental level. I look forward to completing a Ph.D. after Part III.