Directory

Growing up in Kyiv during the Maidan Revolution, I was fascinated by the power modern technology has in shaping politics and democracy. As a mathematics and psychology student at New York University, I used natural language processing and other data science methods to study social processes online. As a PhD student in psychology, I will continue using data science tools to investigate polarization, misinformation, and social identity on social media. I hope to help make social media more politically productive and contribute to our knowledge of how identities develop. Throughout my research career, I want to bring psychologists and data scientists closer together to give both the tools to create a more fair society enabled by modern technology. I hope to use my skills and experience to help rebuild Ukraine.

Previous Education

New York University Mathematics and Psychology 2022

Links

https://github.com/yarakyrychenko
https://medium.com/@k.yara
https://www.linkedin.com/in/yaroslava-kyrychenko

Originally from Montreal, Canada, I recently completed an MPhil at Cambridge in Engineering for Sustainable Development. During this time, I investigated how to enable vulnerable communities to develop solutions around social and environmental problems they face. I built a framework to analyse and map inclusive innovation ecosystems in collaboration with the Centre for Global Equality and the Bahir Dar Institute of Technology in Ethiopia. Prior to Cambridge, I was with Engineers Without Borders Canada for two and a half years. I first worked to accelerate agribusiness enterprises and train local consultants in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. I then managed technology development for an early-stage social enterprise that improved access to markets and affordable finances for smallholder farmers in Kenya. Before that, I worked for two years in making buildings more sustainable through energy efficiency. I’m hoping to build on my research and work experience to further create systems-level change in the realms of climate action and social justice around the world.

Previous Education

Concordia University

I am a biologist, most of my experience has been in tropical coastal ecosystems and policy making. I am researching the responses of coastal ecosystems to natural hazards and how coastal ecosystems can be integrated to coastal and disaster planning initiatives.

Previous Education

Universidad de Los Andes
University of Hull

Born in a family of doctors in India, I grew up looking at the world through a lens of seasoned physicians battling to save lives in resource-poor settings. While the academic in me developed an insatiable curiosity about the biological mechanisms of diseases, the social activist in me realized that exploring drivers of diseases at a population level is important to solve global health problems. My graduate studies at IIT Bombay and University of Cambridge cemented this understanding; extensive field research and work experience with UNICEF impressed upon me the importance of translating research findings into actionable evidence. My PhD seeks to explore the nutritional, lifestyle and metabolic risk factors of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in South Asians; integrating clinical knowledge, statistics and public health. South Asians, constituting a fourth of the global population, experience a disproportionately high burden of these diseases, aggravated by inequities in biological risk, behavioural factors and access to health services. Through my research I wish to comprehensively examine the importance of modifiable risk factors in mitigating cardiometabolic disease risks in this population and inform country-specific policies and disease prevention strategies.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge Epidemiology 2021
Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay Technology and Development 2019
West Bengal University of Technology Biotechnology 2017

Dr. Bo-Shiun Lai is a physician-scientist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. His clinical work includes general family medicine, HIV hepatitis C management in primary care, and treatment of menopause symptoms. His research led to both the development of a novel therapy against toxoplasmosis and deepening understanding of host immune response. His work resulted in a United States patent and a nomination for the Cozzarelli Prize, awarded annually by the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Lai obtained his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in 2017 from the University of Cambridge, where he was a recipient of the prestigious, full-ride Gates Cambridge Scholarship. He received his Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the world-renowned Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 2021. He completed training in family medicine at the University of Toronto in 2023. Dr. Lai is fully certified by the College of Family Physicians of Canada. His hobbies include swimming, photography, and traveling. Above all else, he enjoys spending time with the love of his life, Jennifer.

Links

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

I grew up in a hub of Southeast Asian American cultures and communities in San Jose, California. I worked for a community-based organization on the Thai-Burma border dedicated to the mental health of Burmese refugees. I have since completed an MPhil in Sociology, received my MD from Harvard Medical School, and began residency training in Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Previous Education

Stanford University

It is my hope—also conviction—that historical research can provide insights into how we make sense of our world today. To study History is also to appreciate the weight of truth. Most importantly, I hope my research can be part of a collective effort which helps people from my home, Hong Kong, weather stormy times and imagine their manifold futures. My undergraduate dissertation at HKU explores the city’s turbulent 1950s, not least the way upheavals at the time were written and remembered. As I began my MPhil at Cambridge, I decided to build upon such research to explore similar convulsions in Hong Kong and Singapore in the 1950s. My dissertation fleshes out their connected histories and examines the way Hong Kong and Singapore figured side by side from and beyond the British perspective. I am interested in how the movement of people, objects, and ideas drew the two colonies together. My PhD research will adopt a larger time frame to probe how people in both colonies came to terms with moments of radical change. It also hopes to further explore how ideological currents—from nationalism to the language of human rights, multiculturalism to the cause of democracy—cut across boundaries and pervaded Hong Kong, Singapore, and beyond.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge MPhil in World History 2021
University of Hong Kong History & English Studies 2020

Originating from Waerenga, a small rural community in New Zealand, I was profoundly impacted by the advocacy and care provided by rural physicians to our most vulnerable populations. This experience, coupled with reflections during my paediatric rotations at medical school, fuelled my desire to enhance children's healthcare. I feel privileged to have been supervised by Dr Chris McKinlay, who taught me the power of curiosity and importance of addressing unanswered scientific questions. Together we designed and executed a trial exploring a novel therapy for transitional neonatal hypoglycaemia in the neonatal intensive care unit. Now embarking on a PhD in Paediatrics, I am eager to build upon this foundation under the mentorship of Dr Nazima Pathan in the paediatric intensive care. Our focus will be on better understanding the interplay between patients and the microbiome in the development of ventilator-associated pneumonia, a condition associated with significant mortality and morbidity. Through innovative research, we aim to pioneer early detection and intervention strategies to improve outcomes for paediatric patients. I am immensely grateful to Gates-Cambridge for their support in making this important project possible.

Previous Education

University of Auckland Medical Sciences 2021
University of Auckland Medicine and Surgery 2021

I have always been drawn to stories of people collectively organising to bring about social change. After gaining experience in New Zealand, this passion took to me to Northern Uganda where I have lived and worked as a researcher and grassroots community organiser supporting local activists tackle social, environmental and land rights campaigns since 2013.

My PhD at Cambridge, completed in 2023, drew on ethnographic, archival and activist-research methods to examine political action in response to large-scale, state driven land expropriation in northern Uganda. The issues I explored intersect discussions on peasant resistance and African land regimes–institutional arrangements linking forms of public authority, political identity, administrative territory, and property rights.

My new role as Peace and Justice Coordinator with the Anglican Diocese of Northern Uganda will focus on building peaceful solutions to regional large scale land conflicts.

Previous Education

University of Canterbury

I commenced a PhD in Physics at the Nanophotonics Centre at Cambridge with Professor Jeremy Baumberg in January 2009, and I'm loving it. My topic is "Nanovoid Plasmon-Enhanced Photovoltaics" - using some new physics to make solar cells more efficient. I think one of the biggest challenges of our generation is to understand our planet's resources and develop ways to live with them sustainably. I'm enjoying researching a means of electricity generation that can be safe, clean and decentralised.

I am now a Principal Scientist in Computational Biology at Boehringer Ingelheim, focussing on cardiometabolic disease.

I have bachelor degrees in physics, mathematics and engineering and some experience working in the finance sector. I hope that this varied background will prove useful at Cambridge where I am taking a PhD in conservation science, with a focus on the environmental impact of farming. With global demand for food forecast to double by 2050, it is important to consider both the environmental and social impacts of increasing agricultural production. This is particularly the case in developing countries, where environmental degradation can impose a significant social cost. My research therefore focuses on ways to meet increasing food demand at least cost to the environment.

I am an innovative leader and inquisitive scientist who derives energy from solving problems, communicating science, and growing networks and opportunities. I have excelled at leading multiple organizations and communities, while excelling in my education and research. I am fortunate to have had my dedication to serving the public and understanding of science recognized my multiple national and international awards. In my career, I seek to continue to combine my scientific background with leading projects and helping the public.

Previous Education

Rutgers University BSc Biotechnology 2009

Links

http://www.energy.gov/eere/bioenergy/bioenergy-technologies-office
http://www.linkedin.com/in/devinnlambert

I grew up reading Nepal as a "small poor landlocked country" in school textbooks, and as an adult, I have lived to witness the vulnerability of actually living in a developing country. After completing my undergraduate in law (B.A. LL.B.) from Tribhuvan University, I had opportunities to work with law firms and research groups which navigated me with possible directions to contribute to the economic prosperity of the country as a legal practitioner. With my experience of working alongside young entrepreneurs, local businesses, and foreign investors, I learned the prospects of investing capital, utilizing resources, and creating opportunities in development sectors. I aspire to be part of this larger effort to change the fate of the remittance and aid-driven economy of Nepal. At the University of Cambridge, I will study Master of Law with a particular focus on corporate governance, investment law, and international commercial litigation which I will use to fill in the existing gap in commercial legal practice in Nepal and add experience to Nepali university education. It is an immense honor to be a part of the Gates Cambridge community and I hope to make a difference.

Previous Education

Tribhuvan University B.A.LL.B. 2019

I'm a PhD student studying animal cognition as a member of the Comparative Cognition Lab at the University of Cambridge. My work focuses on cognitive processes such as learning and memory in cuttlefish (marine invertebrates that are closely related to octopus and squid). As an undergraduate at the University of Delaware, I earned an honors BS in marine science with a psychology minor. I researched topics including algal-invertebrate symbioses and the human memory error of boundary extension. I also researched shrimp population dynamics to inform fishery management as a 2021 NOAA Hollings Scholar. As a member of the Gates Cambridge Community, I look forward to initiating broad dialogues about who and what we consider “smart,” providing scientific support for animal welfare policy, and highlighting the remarkable cognitive complexity of marine life to inspire public stewardship of our oceans.

Previous Education

University of Delaware Marine Science 2023

I am interested in how political ideas play out in past and present. As an MPhil student in the interdisciplinary program in Political Thought and Intellectual History, I hope to explore the contexts in which particular political philosophies unfolded as well as the ways in which those philosophies influenced history by empowering people to act. As an intern on Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign and in the White House Office of Presidential Correspondence, I saw firsthand how framing ideas in new ways can lead to a more informed and engaged citizenry. I ultimately hope to use these academic and policy experiences to serve as a communicator between policymakers and citizens, using the power of narrative and my background as both a historian and creative writer to close the gap between individuals and their government.

Previous Education

Princeton University