Directory

Safwan A. Khan is a public policy professional specializing
in government affairs, international development, and humanitarian support. Experienced in policy advisory, programme management, and public affairs, Safwan has worked with governments, third sectors, and multilateral institutions in Canada, South Asia, UK, Australia, and the MENA region. Based in Toronto, he is currently associated with UNHCR – The UN Refugee Agency.

Previous Education

University of Karachi
Quaid-I-Azam University

Links

https://ca.linkedin.com/in/safwan-a-khan-779b2b48

Samir is a Health innovation and Market Access professional with more than seven years of experience in the commercialisation and market access of futuristic technologies spanning Genomics and AI-led Discovery, Diagnostics, Digital patient wellness and healthcare system transformation.
Samir is the co-founder of Lighthouse Innovations Ltd – an Oxford-based innovation and access strategy house advising start-ups and entrepreneurs within and beyond the NHS-industry ecosystem of the UK.
Samir has advised top 10 FTSE Global Life Sciences and Healthcare Commercial Leads and >50 growing start-ups on international market access, payer engagement on value-based pricing and risk-sharing agreements. His experiences span oncology, rare diseases, mental health, and chronic inflammatory indications.
Samir received the Bill and Melinda Gates Fellowship Award to complete his PhD in Pharmacology at Cambridge University. Samir has co-authored papers in Nature and is co-inventor of a vaccine for Hepatitis E in India and drug targets in neurological and cardio-vascular diseases in the UK.

After graduating from Stanford University in 2009 with a B.A. in History and International Relations I returned home to Karachi, Pakistan to work in education and development. These past three years, as an educator and reformer, I have found myself confronting and tackling an educational landscape deeply scarred by inequity, political repression and poor policy. At Cambridge, I hope to critically examine theoretical, local and global conversations on policy in relation to democracy and justice. My key research interests are methods to address inequities in education at the class and gendered level by increasing access and quality. After completing the MPhil I intend to return to Pakistan and pursue a career in education policy and planning.

My work focuses on the epistemic, moral, and political significance of machine learning in science and public life. Tackling these issues leads me to confront fundamental questions concerning the role non-epistemic values in science and technology, the relationship between various conceptions of objectivity and trust, and the nature and importance of uncertainy estimates for responsibility.

Previous Education

University of Houston Philosophy 2021
University of Houston Philosophy 2019

My research focuses on maps of cholera outbreaks made by physicians in nineteenth-century Britain. I aim to understand the role of medical cartography in shaping public perceptions of disease and contributing to public health reform. My work is driven by my experiences in public health and biomedical research. As an undergraduate at Stanford, I conducted research on neurodegenerative diseases, studied the connections between human and environmental health in the Galápagos Islands and Tanzania, and volunteered at local community health centers. My experiences raised questions that were as much social as scientific: What factors explain unequal distribution of disease? How is research communicated to the public? These questions drew me to the history of science and medicine. History reminds us that the way we present scientific information can significantly impact public perceptions of health and disease. We must work to illuminate health disparities in a way that focuses on addressing social determinants of health, rather than generating stigmas. Studying how public health messages have been delivered and acted upon in the past can help us to improve future initiatives. At Cambridge I will pursue an MPhil in History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine. As an aspiring historian and physician, I hope to pursue work that will enable the medical community to approach health disparities with greater historical context, ultimately providing more holistic, ethical, and effective solutions. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to join a community of scholars committed to improving the lives of others.

Previous Education

Stanford University

My volunteer experience at San Francisco General Hospital largely inspired my decision to pursue medical science and sparked my interest in cancer. Patients often told me about how cancer had devastated their families, and how treatments were out of reach financially. I developed an academic interest in cancer from research talks given at a summer internship, after which I began to realize the rather horrifying prospect of how little we know about cancer. These experiences have driven me to pursue cancer immunology research, which I believe is one of the most promising frontiers for better treatments that utilize the body’s own immune defenses to fight cancer. At Cambridge, I studied the role of the Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway, which is abnormally activated in a number of cancers and has been shown to play a key role in immune responses to cancer, in natural killer (NK) cells. I conducted my MPhil work in the lab of Dr. Maike de la Roche at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. Currently, I am an MD/PhD student at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, USA, and my long term goal is to become an independent physician-scientist. Aside from science and medicine, my interests include music, travel, golf, running, and writing. I am incredibly grateful to be a part of the Gates Cambridge community and wholeheartedly accept its commitment to improving the lives of others.

Previous Education

University of California, Berkeley

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexanderbyungsukkim

My research work during my undergraduate years have shown me the extent to which chemical tools with atomic level precision can be applied to complex biological systems. Specifically, epigenetic systems that are constantly showing the interplay between nature and nurture at the individual level present an appropriate platform for utilizing peptide chemistry to help elucidate the complex language. I am excited to have this opportunity to continue this work in Cambridge to incorporate other groundbreaking technologies to help decode the epigenetic language. In the long term, I hope to become a physician-scientist developing medically relevant technologies to support patients in need.

Previous Education

Princeton University

At Washington and Lee University, I obtained a B.S. in physics, a B.A. in global politics and was part of the Shepherd Program for the Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty and Human Capability. I am interested in how communities can implement technological innovation to promote sustainability while eliminating poverty. At Cambridge, I plan to study the fundamental physics behind polymer semiconductors in order to improve the efficiency of organic solar cells. This research could lead to cheap, flexible, lightweight solar cells that would allow us to harness solar power in more convenient ways to meet the energy demands of people who live far from electric grids. After my PhD degree, I plan to continue developing sustainable energy technology and to help make that technology accessible to communities that are off the grid and economically marginalized.

Neha is the founder of the Humanology Project, a nonprofit organization with the mission to reduce the stigma of mental & neurological illness by democratizing medical literature and providing a forum for patients to share their story. She graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2015 with a degree in Modern Society & Global Transformations. Her research investigates the psychosocial and stigmatizing effects of epilepsy on marriage through ethnographic and quantitative studies. In 2015, Neha was the youngest person on the Healthcare List for Forbes 30 under 30.

My proposed course in Criminology is intended to contribute to a deeper understanding of public opinion towards crime and justice. In particular, I feel social reformers could benefit from understanding the psychological roots of punitiveness and forgiveness within the context of individual identity management.

Christopher Kirchhoff is a strategist in emerging technology. Most recently, Kirchhoff created and led the Pentagon's Silicon Valley Office, Defense Innovation Unit X, with its $1 billion investment portfolio harnessing emerging commercial technology for national security innovation. Previously he was Director for Strategic Planning at the National Security Council, Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Senior Advisor to Presidential Counselor John Podesta. Kirchhoff authored the White House report on Big Data & Privacy, the NSC after-action report on Ebola, the Space Shuttle Columbia Accident Investigation report, and the U.S. government history Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience. Kirchhoff graduated in History and Science from Harvard College and holds a doctorate in politics from Cambridge University, where he was a Gates Scholar. He has been awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Service and the Civilian Service Medal for hazardous duty in Iraq.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge MPhil, Social and Political Science 2002
Harvard University AB History 2001

So far my student life has been a lot of fun both in and outside the classroom. Parallel to studying on both sides of the Atlantic, I’ve run a vigorous student association, managed a nationwide project on European integration and established a monthly for young people. Thanks to the Gates Scholarship I am able to engage in intensive research on social sacrifices made in extraordinary situations. Pursuing this project in Cambridge's unique multicultural environment is a great adventure.

Born and raised at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in Castle Rock, Colorado, I completed my Master's degree in Applied Mathematics just a few miles north at the University of Colorado Boulder in 2014. At Cambridge, my PhD research will involve mathematically modelling influenza epidemics, in order to better understand the disease's transmission and to predict which control measures (such as vaccination, travel advisories, and school closures) will most effectively slow or stop an outbreak. I hope that this will ultimately lead to a career in mathematical epidemiology, emphasizing in preventing emerging infectious diseases that cross over from animal to human hosts. In addition to research, I also love to teach mathematics, and I hope to find ways to do so during my time at Cambridge and over the course of my career.

I am pursuing an MPhil in Computational Biology to enable me acquire the skills and knowledge necessarily for a fruitful career as a researcher in the fields of informatics and computational biology. The Gates scholarship has offered me a chance to learn the trade from the very best the world has to offer. The knowledge I will acquire on this course will prepare me well for a PhD in the same area and a very successful and fruitful career in Mathematical Biology. I am from a mathematical background and the idea of using the sophisication of the subject to understand biological phenomena is an intriguing one.

From a young age, I have always been fascinated by the natural sciences. As an undergraduate in Molecular Biomedicine at the University of Bonn, I developed a strong interest in neuroscience. I have worked on several research projects using the fruit fly Drosophila; studying larval feeding behaviour at Bonn, accumulation of evidence prior to decision-making in larvae at HHMI Janelia Research Campus, and attention in adult flies at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. As a PhD student at Cambridge, I will investigate the neural basis of operant learning in Drosophila larvae. This is the process in which an animal learns about the consequences of its own behaviour, leading to reinforcement or suppression of certain actions. I anticipate that these studies will reveal many of the general principles underlying operant learning. This will hopefully lead to a better understanding of operant learning in vertebrate model systems, facilitating the investigation of related diseases, such as learning disorders, neurodegenerative diseases or obsessive-compulsive disorders, and eventually the development of better cures. After my PhD, I plan to pursue a career in scientific research, investigating the fundamental questions in neuroscience to help us better understand how the brain works. In my spare time, I volunteer as a mentor for high school students with exceptional mathematical talent, and am involved in the organisation of mathematical competitions in Germany.

Previous Education

Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn
Fudan University