Directory

I was born in Warsaw, but grew up in the States. In 2008, I graduated from Princeton where I majored in Operations Research and Financial Engineering.

I was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. As an only child, reading was a crucial source of entertainment, and a uniquely important channel to other cultures and ideas. It was therefore natural for me to study English at university. I completed my BA(Hons) and MA at Victoria University of Wellington. For my Master's thesis I produced a scholarly edition of 'The Urewera Notebook', a diary kept by the writer Katherine Mansfield in 1907, while she was camping in remote parts of New Zealand. For this project I carried out extensive research amongst local Maori communities and my thesis was published by Edinburgh University Press in 2015. For the first time my academic writing reached a broad, international readership. This experience confirmed my desire to produce critical editions and literary criticism relevant to the popular as well as to the academic reader. The name Samuel Butler hovered at the edges of my consciousness as a child; he was a writer who farmed inland from Christchurch from 1859-1864. I became more interested in Butler while studying Mansfield; it struck me that the works of both writers offered perspectives on the cultural ‘pull’ of Empire, albeit through different eras and patterns of emigration and relocation. At Cambridge I aim to study Butler's satirical novel 'Erewhon', in order to consider its indebtedness to Butler's colonial experience, and to shed light on a period of New Zealand literary history that has been obscured in recent decades.

Previous Education

Victoria University of Wellington

In addition to all the others, the challenge of generating accessible and ecologically sustainable energy is paramount in today's world. Developing economically scalable solar cell technology is the ideal answer to this challenge. This year, I plan on studying crystals of small organic molecules in the hope of creating a new, efficient and cheap photovoltaic. I want to take the best of both currently active areas of solar energy research: the stability and efficiency of traditional crystal technology, and the low cost and flexibility of organics.

With increasing global food demands, chronic hunger and coinciding crop damages, food security is an important issue that requires the attention from all corners of the world. Crop availability is constantly being challenged by multiple factors, including, but not limited to, environmental impact, pests, and pathogens. My current interest in promoting food security largely developed out of my MSc work on cassava, a staple food for Sub-Saharan Africans. As I pursue my PhD studies at Cambridge, I aim to better understand how plants could increase their resistance to pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, and fungi. Plants have defence mechanisms that counter the attacks imposed by the aforementioned pathogens. However, the exact methods employed by various plants are not entirely known up to date. Additionally, I hope to work at the interface between the scientific community and the public, by using my scientific knowledge and bridging the gap between the two communities.

Since completing my B.A. in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, my research and nonprofit work has focused on developing ecosystem-based solutions that address environmental, economic, and sociocultural issues in tandem while promoting the well-being of the environment and Indigenous communities. At Cambridge, I will work with the BEFTA Programme to investigate management strategies that support biodiversity and ecosystem processes in Malaysian oil palm plantations. Working alongside local farmers, we aim to develop oil palm agricultural management systems that are the most effective in buffering pollination services against potential climate fluctuations brought about by climate change. The resulting management solutions will provide the greatest economic and social benefits for these local communities while minimizing environmental costs. I am incredibly grateful and privileged to become part of the Gates Cambridge Network and join a community of inspiring scholars who are dedicated to improving the lives of others. I look forward to collaborating with fellow Gates scholars to develop innovative, cross-disciplinary strategies that address the greatest environmental and social issues facing our world today.

Previous Education

Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Evolutionary Biology 2015
Universite de Montpellier II - ISIM Evolutionary Biology 2015
Harvard University

In Cambridge I read for the Certificate of Advanced Study in Mathematics (Part III). Having studied theoretical physics in Ukraine and the Netherlands, and worked as a Marie-Curie researcher in Orsay, France, I plan to expand my knowledge in probability theory, which became especially important for physicists with the invention of Stochastic Loewner Evolution (SLE, Fields Medal 2006 to W. Werner).

It is an honor to have received a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. Pursuing a PhD at Cambridge is a wonderful experience and it was a joy to meet and work with such a diverse and passionate group of people. My doctoral dissertation involved using a range of techniques, from classical anatomy to finite element modeling, to better understand diet and feeding in early plant-eating dinosaurs. My research identified key evolutionary changes in skull and tooth shape among early dinosaurs that allowed them to exploit new food sources and fueled their extraordinary success.

After a series of postdoctoral positions, I am now a lecturer in anatomy at UCL, teaching first and second year medical students and carrying out research in evolutionary biomechanics, investigating the link between form, function and large-scale evolutionary patterns in vertebrates.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge MPhil Earth Sciences 2005
University of Illinois at Chicago

As a Gates Scholar, I received my MPhil in Criminological Research in 2011 from the University of Cambridge. In 2015, I received my Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of Pennsylvania.

I am currently an assistant professor in the School of Criminology and Justice Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. My research examines biological risk factors for antisocial behavior, aggression, and psychopathy. My primary focus is on psychophysiological, nutritional, and hormonal risk factors for antisocial behavior.

While most criminological research is either social or biological, my work contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the development of delinquency that takes into account factors across multiple levels of measurement. This research will help practitioners to develop more effective crime prevention strategies that address multiple risk domains.

Author of the award-winning book, "Points of Contact: The Shared Intellectual History of Vocalisation in Syriac, Arabic, and Hebrew," freely available here: https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0271

Previous Education

University of Chicago

Links

https://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/people/dr-nick-posegay
https://cambridge.academia.edu/NickPosegay

I completed my MPhil in Multidisciplinary Gender Studies at the Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies in 2015/16. My research focused on the ways young women use online technologies to engage in feminist thought and action and explored how these online practices are affecting feminist political progress.

I now work in Australia as Senior Social Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister, the Hon Anthony Albanese MP.

Prior to coming to Cambridge I worked as a Social Policy Advisor at the Australian Treasury, specialising in schools policy, early childhood education and care and parental leave policy.

Previously I worked as research manager for the global food and water security program run at Australian public policy think tank Future Directions International.

Previous Education

University of Western Australia

At Cambridge, I intend to pursue an MPhil in Development Studies, and in so doing return the focus of my career to anti-poverty work in the international arena. Equipped with the deeper knowledge of development theory and practice that I would gain from this interdisciplinary program, I hope to take on a leadership role in a non-governmental or multilateral development institution.

I am currently a Lecturer (assistant professor) Nineteenth-Century Literature at the University of York, UK. I studied in India, my home country, till 2009, when I completed a BA degree in English at Delhi University, Lady Shri Ram College. The same year I moved to Cambridge to pursue a BA (affiliated) degree in English at Lucy Cavendish College as a Gates Scholar (2009-11). I then completed a PhD in English, specializing in Victorian literature and aesthetics, at Rutgers University, New Jersey, and an MFA in Creative Writing at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Apart from scholarship and teaching, I enjoy reading (and writing) fiction, history, taking long walks, and trying to stuff as many activities in a London day as is possible. I am currently working on my first monograph (on details in Victorian literature and aesthetics) and my first novel.

Previous Education

Lady Shri Ram College for Women, New Delhi BA (Hons.) English 2009

Links

https://www.york.ac.uk/english/our-staff/pritikapradhan

I am a journalist in New York who writes on inequality, poverty, and social services. I'm currently a contributing writer to The California Sunday Magazine. I have also reported from Thailand, the Philippines, and Britain. At Cambridge, I studied for a master's in public policy, and previous to that, I graduated from Princeton University. My work has appeared in The California Sunday Magazine, The Guardian, The Independent, Harper’s online, and Politico, among others.

Previous Education

Princeton University Classics 2010

After completing my Ph.D. on the media coverage of DNA research between 1953 and 2003, I returned to medical school, completed a residency in Obstetrics & Gynecology and am currently completing a Fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility

I am interested in exploring and identifying the basic principles governing the generation and the behaviour of energy and matter. During my time spent in Cambridge I hope to develop the skills I need to do research in theoretical physics leading to greater understanding of the basic laws of nature. I would also like to be part of the University's ifluential international alumni network and I think that being a Gates Scholar will help to accomplish this ambition.