Directory

Work as a doctor in Afghanistan in 2002 for Medecins sans Frontieres illustrated to me the importance of very simple maternal and child health care in improving survival and the quality of life in children. My recently completed doctoral thesis, which studied the role of maternal nutrition around conception in the developmental origins of health and disease, further emphasised the critical importance of good maternal diet to the long-term health of her children. However, provision of healthcare in developing countries is challenging and requires robust, cost-effective, well-proven interventions. I am particularly interested in the application of technology to health problems in the developing world, for which there is huge potential, and the business models that may serve to develop these solutions. The Masters in Bioscience Enterprise in Cambridge provides the ideal combination of science and business education to allow me to pursue these interests.

My studies have led me towards two fields which have, so far, had very little overlap. In my undergraduate degree at Exeter College, Oxford, I focused on medieval language and literature, which led me to an interest in medieval Irish literature, with the opportunity to study the language and literature of Ireland in my final year. Simultaneously, I became more interested in trans theory, writing my dissertation on queer and trans women in modern science fiction and fantasy comics. Currently, in my Master’s degree in the department of Celtic and Gaelic at the University of Glasgow, I combine these two areas of study, using trans theory to examine the role of figures on the boundary between human and animal in medieval Irish literature. Thinking about the continued dehumanization of trans people, as well as trans reclamations of unhumanity and monstrosity, I hope to take theoretical approaches to figures who linger between species and gender. I believe this approach has potential to open up new avenues of inquiry in Celtic Studies, as well as to build alternate ways of looking towards trans pasts in order to consider trans futures.

Previous Education

University of Glasgow Celtic Studies 2019
University of Oxford English Language & Literature 2018

I am from Ukraine, from a beautiful city called Lviv.

I was inspired to do Physics, when I was finishing school, so I did my undergraduate degree in Physics (specialising in Optics and Physics of Medicine). Studying was a lot of fun, and some subjects really feel like your brain is stretching! I also did lots of other things volunteering with student organisations and took part in archaeological expedition digging up a 3 thousand year old burial ground and on another occasion helped to restore a 16 century castle and palace! I also led teams at hiking competitions, and challenged perceptions that girls are no good at hiking by leading a ladies team to a 4th place over a challenging route in a tight contest with 25 other teams.

Later I got Gates Cambridge Scholarship to do a PhD at the University of Cambridge. This has completely transformed my life. Imagine being able to go to one of the best universities in the world! Walking through Cavendish Laboratory museum (as a Physicist) and looking at the photographs of people who made history in Physics was unforgettable. And soon I also realised that that people around me are still making that history - and that I could be making it myself!

In my PhD I worked on Liquid Crystals, I have kept my enthusiasm for these materials ever since. After submitting my thesis I wanted to do something crazy, and a trip to Nepal, a hike up to Everest base camp and an expedition to a 6,189m peak (Island Peak or Imja Tse) seemed to fit the bill. It was the most exciting travel experience I ever had. I even came back in one piece to do my viva.

Industry found my research worth investing in, and I have spent a number of years at Cambridge University doing some exciting liquid crystal based work, adding different nanomaterials to Liquid Crystals to make new functional materials for Photonic and Radio Frequency applications.

Meanwhile I won a highly prestigious Junior Research Fellowship from Wolfson College, Cambridge. And for 4 very happy and exciting years while working in one of the best Universities in the World, I was also involved in the College governance, organised seminars, Research days and did lots of ballroom and salsa dancing and singing in a choir of very high standard. I interacted with some amazing researchers from a variety of fields, which is perhaps the best and absolutely invaluable part of being a College Fellow at Cambridge.

Later I had a privilege of getting a Visiting Research Fellowship from the International Institute of Complex Adaptive Matter and spent super-productive and super-fun 2 months in Colorado (University of Colorado at Boulder). Lots of skiing and lab work, and some really cool science!

I also found the appeal of Graphene, as the Nobel Prize was awarded in 2010 hard to resist, and I moved to the nanomaterials side of research for a bit.

Around that time something that is known as two-body problem became an issue for me. In Physics, two-body problem is a mechanical interaction of two solid objects, and it can be solved using equations. In life, two-body problem is when two romantically minded academics/researchers want to get together with an intent to form a family, but to do it they need to find jobs in the same geographic region (and ideally, in the same University). This human problem can be solved using equations only to a certain extent, but we managed pretty well, with one person moving countries but staying in the same research field, and another staying in the same country (moving universities), but changing research field.

This is how I got interested and started working in Ultrasonics and non-destructive testing at the University of Warwick. I am thrilled that I had made this rather bold step, as the amount of exciting applications is huge, and they really resonate with my desire to make the world a better place. Plus, I bring my experience in the field of Liquid Crystals and Optics, so I can make some new and amazing things happen.

Now I am a mom of two lovely girls, I love my work and teaching, and I do my best to share my passion for my research with others.

Previous Education

Ivan Franko Lviv National University BA Physics 2000

My ultimate goal is to develop a career in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (Ob/Gyn) that is specifically aimed at going beyond translating science into applicable interventions that are affordable, so as to promote patient health at the level of underserved communities and large city hospitals. I plan to perform my clinical duties in the context of these communities, while simultaneously using my clinical and research skills to close the gap in access to healthcare and novel therapies. As a Gates scholar I completed the Translational Medicine MPhil, both taking courses and completing a research project in the department of Ob/Gyn. In June 2013, I returned to NYU School of Medicine for the final year of medical training, and to begin a residency program in OB/GYN at UPenn starting June 2014.

My doctoral research was a comparative study of student engagement and persistence in STEM fields in Finland, Sweden, and United States. In addition to comparative education policy, my current interest is on the intersection of science and mathematics education, and the education of citizens. I am interested in the idea of science and mathematics as part of a humanities education increases our wonder and appreciation of the world, and what it means to be human.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge MPhil, Mathematics Education 2008
University of Turku, Finland Fulbright Fellow, Mathematics 2004
Scripps College BA, Mathematics, Hispanic Studies 2003

My interest in public service and improving the lives of others comes from the humble recognition that had I been born a few generations earlier, I would have been preparing for a hard day’s labor instead of a day of classes and baseball practice at Stanford University. My great-grandfather, an immigrant from the Azores Islands, was a gardener at Stanford; he barely spoke English and worked endless hours to support a family living in poverty. I achieved my goals at Stanford because of their sacrifices. To learn how I can help ensure such opportunities exist for others, I have taught hardworking, underprivileged students about their role in a democracy. As a research assistant for Dr. Condoleezza Rice and a White House Intern for the Obama Administration, I have realized that strengthening and investing in our democracy’s future is important, takes time, depends on collaboration and requires patience. At Stanford, my research focuses on the US national security advisor and foreign policy decisions. At Cambridge, I hope to broaden this research to compare how presidents and prime ministers utilize their advisors to improve the policy making process and uncover avoidable errors that profoundly affect us all.Interests: Reading non-fiction, meditating daily, practicing the “slow-carb” and “paleo” diets, playing baseball, singing in the church choir, playing chess, Olympic powerlifting

Previous Education

Stanford University

I am an AI ethics and critical design researcher interested in reimagining AI from Majority World perspectives. I blend decolonial approaches with ethnographic and computational methods to analyse the implications of digital technologies on the historically marginalised populations in the Global South. I am a 2024 MPhil candidate in Ethics of AI, Data, and Algorithms at the Leverhulme Centre for Future of Intelligence (LCFI), University of Cambridge, funded by Trinity Hall Postgraduate Research Studentship. Previously, as a Research Assistant at LCFI, I contributed to organising the Many Worlds of AI conference and co-edited its digital proceedings. I also co-designed a toolkit helping journalists worldwide in responsibly communicating AI’s harms and potentials. I completed my MA at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies (CIM), University of Warwick with Commonwealth Scholarship, achieved distinctions, and was awarded for my academic excellence. Prior, as a Senior Research Associate at BRAC University, I co-developed a Digital Strategy Primer for Bangladesh launched by the State Minister of the ICT Division in collaboration with the University of Oxford.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge Ethics in AI,Data&Algorithms 2024
University of Warwick Digital Media and Culture 2022
Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology Civil Engineering 2018

I grew up in San Francisco, California, and completed a B.A. in Comparative Literature & Society and Mathematics at Columbia University. I’m broadly interested in the relationship between technical knowledge and social order, particularly in the histories of eugenics and mathematics. My work at Columbia has focused on transnational collaboration in early-twentieth-century eugenics, interrogating how eugenicists in America collaborated with their European counterparts across national boundaries and political disagreements. As a Gates Cambridge scholar, I will continue to study histories of eugenics and concepts of race, transnational scientific collaboration, and mathematics and quantification. Throughout, I seek to explore what the recent past can teach us about the politics of today as eugenic thought, international right wing movements, and (frequently inscrutable) mathematical reasoning continue to grow in political relevance. As someone with interests across the humanities, the social sciences, and STEM, I am thrilled to join a community of interdisciplinary scholars dedicated to bridging the academy and the public sphere.

Previous Education

Columbia University Comparative Literature, Math 2024

I have a deep interest in environment related issues and have worked with several environmental organizations in India. After working for a few years I realized that environment and development issues are closely inter-related. I explored these links further through an MPhil at Cambridge. At present I am pursuing a PhD in political ecology and studying long-term outcomes of a community forestry project in India. After completing my PhD I intend to work mainly on issues related to interaction between environment and development policies.

Being born and raised in Haiti and moving to one of the richest countries in the world made me clearly aware of the differences in quality of life among people worldwide. It never felt right to me that some people suffered and struggled so much while others lounged in luxury, and just because of the place they were born! I knew as a little girl that I wanted to improve the quality of life in places just like my homeland. As I spent more time in the U.S. though, I came to understand that inequality was a complex issue that directly affected wellbeing and quality of life, an unrestrictive issue affecting poor and rich countries alike. I look forward to researching the effects of inequality on wellbeing and development while exploring the grassroots organizations and state institutions that can both spur and hinder this equitable growth. I am excited to continue to build on my academic and research experience in the stimulating environment at Cambridge.

I am currently close to completing PhD in Economics. My research focuses on topics in international finance - essentially it is about forecasting and optimising how countries choose to borrow and lend to each other. I believe that one of the key strengths of Cambridge University is the climate of interaction and exchange of ideas between different disciplines. That is the main, but not the only, reason why I have had such a wonderful time here.

I am a historical keyboardist passionate about eighteenth-century music history and theory. While an undergraduate at New York University, I became fascinated with historical approaches to improvisation and keyboard pedagogy. I continued my graduate work at the Yale School of Music in harpsichord performance. There, I wrote my thesis on a galant schema I identified in repertoire from the baroque period and beyond. My PhD research will focus on George Frideric Handel’s keyboard music, using schema theory and other modes of analysis to gain new insights into Handel’s musical “voice” at the keyboard and to adapt a pedagogy for recreating music in his style. I aim to make repertoire from the past more accessible to audiences and students by highlighting common harmonic elements between the music of the early modern period and the present day.

Previous Education

Yale University Harpsichord Performance 2023
Yale University Harpsichord Performance 2017

In the southwest Rocky Mountains, my formative years were spent shaping, and shaped by, nature. My architectural career proceeded to harness natural forces and materials through the planning, design and construction of communal rainwater catchment pavilions in Rwanda; solar/geo-thermal powered, net-zero energy neighborhoods and mixed-use urban infill projects in the USA; and self-sufficient, digitally-fabricated engineered timber homes, greenhouses, public space interventions, and future 'Biocities' in Spain. My doctoral research investigates how geospatial networks can inform place-based natural material value chains for development we’ll need to meet the demand for a worldwide doubling of built floor area by 2060 - while mitigating and adapting to global climate change by advancing carbon neutrality, resource security, ecosystem services, and ecologic as well as human health and wellbeing.

Previous Education

Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia Advanced Ecological Buildings 2019
University of Colorado at Boulder Env. Design: Architecture 2014

Links

https://valldaura.net
https://www.instagram.com/mnmnsalka
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelsalka

Currently, the world has been experiencing a massive burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCD) and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) constitute almost half of all chronic health hazards. Several CVD risk prediction models have been developed in different populations to estimate individual risk over a 10-year period. My PhD research will focus on the performance of existing CVD risk prediction models among the Bangladeshi population along with developing a risk score that is tailored and recalibrated to the contemporary circumstances in Bangladesh. Moreover, the research will also investigate the use of polygenic risk scores which will be a novel approach for this population. I will use BELIEVE data, one of the largest NCD cohorts in Bangladesh (73,000 participants), along with other globally relevant datasets to recalibrate the prediction model. This research will have multiple potential benefits to public health in Bangladesh, while also contributing more broadly to risk prediction research globally, specifically among the people of South Asian ancestry.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge Population Health Sciences 2023
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Public Health - Epidemiology 2020
University of Dhaka Medicine and Surgery 2015

After completing my MPhil in Social Anthropology through the Gates Scholarship, I taught anthropology for two years at O.P. Jindal Global University in India and helped run the University's Jindal Centre for Social Innovation + Entrepreneurship (JSiE). I am interested in issues of work, gender, and education, and I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Anthropology at Stanford.

Previous Education

Harvard University