Directory

I obtained an MPhil in Advanced Chemical Engineering at Cambridge in 2010 and I am currently studying for a PhD in Engineering. The rising global energy demand coupled with the need to reduce carbon emissions call for research, development and commercialisation of low-cost and efficient renewable energy resources. My research is focused on the study and modelling of light conditions in photobioreactors. This is relevant to the optimisation of growth conditions of algae for large scale production of biofuels. After my PhD I hope to work where I can apply my knowledge and skills to the development of clean energy technologies. I hope to work on cutting-edge projects and to gain a chartered engineer status. My long term plan is to be in a position where I can positively influence government policies on energy and the environment.

For many years, I have been fascinated by the physiology of the heart and have strived, through research, to better understand how this amazing organ works. As a member of the Giussani lab at Cambridge, I am studying how adverse conditions in fetal life may alter the development of the fetal heart and predispose it to disease in adulthood. A better understanding of this process will provide insight into the prevention of heart disease. I am fascinated by both this research and its potential applications. Heart disease is rapidly becoming a threat to health worldwide and in the future, I hope to contribute to the development of better, more efficient therapeutics for this devastating disease. Outside the lab, I am looking forward to playing music in Clare College, learning to row and meeting new people.

Links

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20068362

I recently graduated from the University of California, Davis with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. With the generous help of the Gates Cambridge Trust, I am entering my third year in the four year PhD program in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease at the Institute of Metabolic Science. My PhD project will focus on the molecular basis of the incretin effect. Specifically, I will be using various imaging techniques to analyze the nutrient sensing capabilities of intestinal enteroendocrine cells, as well as the vesicle dynamics of incretin hormones. Hopefully, by understanding the intricacies of stimulus-secretion coupling mechanisms in intestinal enteroendocrine cells we will be closer to harnessing the incretin effect in therapies aimed at improving the glucose tolerance of patients with type 2 diabetes.

I grew up in Ogbomoso, Nigeria and attended Ladoke Akintola University of Technology where I completed a BTech degree in Chemistry. As an undergraduate in Prof Olugbenga Bello’s lab, I synthesized activated carbon from agricultural wastes to remove endocrine disrupting chemicals from wastewater. I also developed a machine learning model that predicts the adsorption efficiency of activated carbon. My passion to solve real-world problem made climate change a fascinating topic for my MPhil degree in Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. For this degree, I was awarded Mastercard Foundation scholarship to study the properties of materials for carbon capture at atomic scale in Prof Angelos Michaelides’ group. In my PhD research, I will use state-of-the-art computer simulation approaches to discover and understand the properties of next-generation materials for carbon capture. This work will contribute to climate change mitigation and clean energy transition. I am immensely grateful to have been selected for this prestigious scholarship. With the enriching networks and the opportunities that the scholarship provides, I hope to make a valuable contribution to the Gates Cambridge community and the world at large.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge Chemistry 2023
Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Chemistry 2020

The idea of harnessing the immune system to treat cancer is fascinating to me. Moreover, during my medical training in Nigeria, I was deeply moved by the experiences of cancer patients, especially with the very limited treatment options available. This combination of curiosity and compassion inspired me to pursue a career at the intersection of excellent patient care and cutting-edge cancer research. I subsequently received the Clarendon scholarship for a Masters at the University of Oxford, where my research was on the innate immune cGAS-STING signalling in cancer, under the supervision of Dr Eileen Parkes. At Cambridge, I have joined Dr Maike de la Roche's group to explore how hedgehog signalling is orchestrated in cytotoxic immune cells during the antitumor response. Mechanistic insights from this work, and others, will potentially enable better design of advanced cellular therapies, bringing hope to numerous patients. Ultimately, I plan to contribute significantly to efforts aimed at expanding access to transformative therapies globally, and alleviate the unacceptable disparities currently observed. I feel incredibly honoured to have joined the Gates Cambridge community and look forward to an enriching experience with other young leaders from across the world.

Previous Education

University of Oxford Integrated Immunology 2021
University of Ibadan Medicine and Surgery 2019

The pulse of being in one of the most prestigious seats of learning leaves you in awe. The academic culture is exemplary and I consider it a privilege to be here. I expect my time here to prove to be one of the most remarkable and rewarding experiences.

Most clinical technologies for detecting protein biomarkers are antibody based. As an alternative approach, my research focuses on the development of protein-catalyzed capture agents (PCCs) – compounds that possess the affinities and specificities of antibodies, but also are highly stable on the shelf and in vivo. PCCs are selected for specific binding through synthetic combinatorial peptide library methodologies that make use of the target protein as the catalyst for assembling a multivalent ligand. We are exploiting the small size, low cost, and rapid synthesis of PCCs to monitor biomarkers to detect cancer and other serious diseases.

Nick Ahamed is a Deputy Executive Director at Priorities USA, covering political partnerships, analytics and opinion research. In that role, he leads Priorities’ political operation by supporting and working with progressive allies. He also oversees the organization’s analytics and opinion research strategy, ensuring our messages are developed, tested, and delivered rigorously. Previously, he served as the Director of Analytics at Priorities, guiding targeting, ad testing, election forecasting and resource allocation for the largest outside effort to defeat Donald Trump. In 2017, he won the Gates Scholarship to research bias in voter turnout models at the University of Cambridge, from where he holds a MPhil in Politics and International Relations.

Previous Education

Stanford University

My experience growing up at the intersection of Swahili and Canadian communities has intrinsically shaped my interests in human rights, disarmament, and diaspora studies. From 2020-2022, I was a research assistant with the Stanford Graduate School of Education supporting the creation of the World Education Reform Database. In addition, during my time at the Reach Alliance, I conducted research examining the importance of employing local grassroots solutions to misinformation in conflict settings. Building on the combination of my degree from the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto and my professional experiences with organizations such as Grand Challenges Canada and the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, I intend to solidify my academic interest in African women's peacebuilding. In the MPhil in African Studies course, I will utilize comparative policy analyses to examine how disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) initiatives in Africa have integrated female ex-combatants into their framework. I firmly believe there is a social imperative to DDR work, and a failure to address inadequacies in those structures means a stronger chance of conflict reoccurring.

Previous Education

Middlebury Language Schools Arabic 2023
University of Toronto Social Sciences 2022

I came to Cambridge in 2009 to study for the MPhil and then PhD in epidemiology. I hold an MD degree in medicine from Tehran University and prior to attending Cambridge University worked on a GFATM funded Malaria control project at the United Nations Development Programme office in Iran. Upon completion of my studies at Cambridge, I joined UCL and worked on a public health modelling project to forecast the burden of cardiovascular disease, dementia and disability over the next 25 years in the UK and four European countries, to measure the impact of public health policies and interventions on these outcomes. I then joined Imperial College London as Assistant Professor in Epidemiology of Ageing to continue my research on dementia.

Links

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/s.ahmadi-abhari
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-ahmadi-abhari-a3043334

I was first exposed to the quantum world during my time in Sydney, Australia, where I completed my BSc in physics and statistics. Combining the fields of quantum error correction with theoretical condensed matter physics, my undergraduate thesis investigated problems such as how to safely store quantum information for longer periods of time. Questions such as these will not only be crucial for the future success of commercial quantum computing, but also help us better understand the quantum world itself. As a research community, we are on the brink of realising controllable, scalable quantum systems for the first time - giving us the unprecedented ability to test and improve upon ideas across quantum theory. I am excited to continue exploring these areas through a PhD in Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge, drawing upon ideas from both quantum information and condensed matter physics. As a Gates Cambridge Scholar, I am honoured to join such a diverse and collaborative academic community, through which I aim to continue embracing this interdisciplinary approach to my studies and future research.

Previous Education

University of Sydney Physics and Statistics 2022

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-aitchison

I am a linguist and language enthusiast who undertook my PhD at Cambridge on word-order variation in the endangered, indigenous Uralic language Lule Sámi, spoken in parts of Northern Norway and Sweden. I am currently Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer of Lule Sámi at Nord University in Bodo, Norway.

As a Christian who grew up in religious circles, questions about theology and religion have always been on my mind especially as it pertains to the Holy Spirit. This is because I observed how people are often manipulated and exploited by those who claim to be special possessors of the Spirit. I have also observed how churches refuse to engage in matters of social justice in the name of the Spirit. It seems to me that these negative practices thrive mostly on confusion about the identity and activity of the Spirit. This situation troubled me and so I sought to do something about it. My Ph.D. in Theology and Religion aims to change the status quo by explicating and presenting Friedrich Schleiermacher’s doctrine of the Spirit as a viable alternative. Schleiermacher’s doctrine of the Spirit is of particular interest to me precisely because of its simplicity, depth, openness to social engagement, and potential to combat harmful ideas about the Spirit in Christian communities. I also aim to show its relevance for Christian theology and the community of believers both in my country and beyond.

Previous Education

The University of Edinburgh Theology 2024
Theol Col of Northern Nigeria Theology 2023
Theol Col of Northern Nigeria Theology 2021

I was born in Aba, Nigeria, immigrated to the United States at the age of 2, and have been living in New York City ever since. I was the class of 2012 at Yale University, where I majored in evolutionary biology. I am interested in microbial evolution and medicine and at Yale conducted research examining how phage (viruses that infect bacteria) can be engineered to better kill their hosts. At Cambridge, I will pursue an MPhil in Biochemistry and study phage abortive infection, an altruistic mechanism bacteria employ that protects them from the ravages of phage attack. I plan to obtain more knowledge on the molecular dynamics of phage-host interactions. It is my hope that my work will be applied to the growing research on treating antibiotic resistant infections with phage. After my time at Cambridge, I plan to apply to MD-PhD programs. I hope to build a career as an infectious disease specialist and a scientist committed to developing new treatments for microbial diseases.

I credit a multicultural, diverse upbringing for culminating my interest in equal and equitable health for all, subsequently guiding my pursuit of a degree in Medicine, and a Master's in Public Health. My interest in adolescent health and well-being has enabled me to diverge into the wider sphere of public health, where I have collaborated with the European Public Health Association and the WHO to develop resources aimed towards the general public, with a focus on mental health and stigma. Together we curated seminars and educational content on pressing issues (such as adolescent sexual and reproductive health, Polio, and antimicrobial resistance), and I have been honoured to present my work exploring the links between social media and body dysmorphia at the 10th International Festival of Public Health. Pursuing this PhD at Cambridge represents a natural yet deliberate continuation of my commitment to a future where I improve the lives of others. I hope to conduct research, underpinned by the UN's SDGs, that creates a foundation which furthers work towards reduced health inequalities, promotes adolescent well-being and agency in their health, and strengthens collaborative networks between change-makers and the wider population.

Previous Education

The University of Manchester MBChB, Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery 2024
The University of Manchester MPH (Distinction), Master of Public Health 2022