Directory

Up through my senior year in high school, I intended to study politics and then to pursue a career in public policy, but as a freshman in college I was--very fortunately, as it turns out--forced to take a year of Latin in order to fulfill my language requirement. Much to my surprise, I immediately fell in love with both the language itself and the world of ancient history to which it gave me access. As an undergraduate, I devoted much of my attention to the study of Athenian democratic reform, and I hope to continue my research on that topic as an MPhil candidate at Cambridge. My ultimate goal is to obtain a PhD and eventual employment as a university professor, for I can think of nothing more rewarding than the opportunity to share my love for the ancient world with those who, like me, were not fortunate enough to encounter Classics prior to college.

I'm currently a postdoc in biology at Stanford. I was in Cambridge during 2005-06 doing an MPhil in computational biology, and then did my PhD in biological engineering at MIT. My research combines chemistry and molecular biology to understand how cells respond to cues from the environment. I focus particularly on cancer, identifying the pathways that are disregulated by common cancer-causing mutations.

Born in Cape Town to a South African father and a German mother, I have always been deeply aware of how culture affects the way in which we think and value knowledge. Throughout my undergraduate degree at the University of Cape Town I was drawn to exploring the ways knowledge is deeply implicated in relations of power, where certain knowledges and ways of knowing are privileged over others and the impact this has on addressing questions of inequality and social injustice. As a Commonwealth Scholar at doing an MPhil in Intellectual History at Cambridge, I explored the ways in which Scottish Enlightenment thought impacted upon narratives around slavery and emancipation in nineteenth century South Africa. After completing my Cambridge MPhil, I decided to shift my focus from history to anthropology, with the desire to be involved in more engaged academia. For my MSc in Social Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam I conducted three months fieldwork in Malawi studying Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres in rural villages and the ways in which these centres are embedded in asymmetrical power/knowledge relations which privilege outside and ‘expert’ knowledge above that of the community. During my PhD at Cambridge I hope to further explore the ways in which unequal power/knowledge constructions are embedded in ‘development’ focused literacy projects, by examining the import of children’s fantasy and fairytale literature into rural communities and the asymmetrical relations of power within which these are embedded.

Previous Education

University of Amsterdam
University of Cambridge

During my undergraduate studies in geophysics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I developed a fascination with glaciers and the Arctic, a passion that has taken me to Alaska, British Columbia, Greenland and Iceland. My research has focused on glaciology and Arctic hydrology, including studying surface strain rates on the Taku Glacier in Southeast Alaska through the Juneau Icefield Research Program and examining trends in the timing of Siberian river ice breakup using satellite imagery in UNC’s Global Hydrology Lab. After visiting the Greenland Ice Sheet in 2013, I became particularly interested in studying the dramatic retreat of Greenland’s large outlet glaciers and the complex processes that govern their flow. At Cambridge, I will pursue my MPhil in Polar Studies at the Scott Polar Research Institute, where I will focus on researching feedbacks between basal hydrology and flow in tidewater glaciers in West Greenland. Through the use of mathematical modeling of glacier flow, I seek to better understand how Greenland’s glaciers are responding to climate warming as part of efforts to improve sea level rise predictions. I am honored and excited to join the diverse Gates Cambridge community and to engage in the groundbreaking polar research and outreach at the Scott Polar Research Institute.

Previous Education

University of North Carolina

Atticus DeProspo, United States, received his B.S. degree in Industrial & Labor Relations from Cornell University, graduating with honors. He was a member of the Cornell Varsity Men's Soccer Team for four years, helping them win an Ivy League Title. Previously, he worked in Florida and Washington D.C. as an intern for Senator Marco Rubio. Atticus also interned at the Supreme Court of the United States for Justice Sotomayor. Atticus was a member of the inaugural class of the Schwarzman Scholars Program, where he graduated with a Master’s degree in Global Affairs from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Atticus was selected as a Gates-Cambridge Scholar, where he graduated with an M.Phil. degree in Criminology from the University of Cambridge. Atticus received his J.D. from The University of Alabama School of Law. He clerked for Chief Judge L. Scott Coogler on the US District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Atticus also clerked for Judges Peter Hall and Steven Menashi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Currently, he works as an associate at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C.

Previous Education

Cornell University

Links

https://www.wc.com/Attorneys/Atticus-DeProspo
https://www.linkedin.com/in/atticus-deprospo-b27560228?challengeId=AQFmP10UHNL8sAAAAYc4BDztW10bFedB98prwDzszCvj2ncGX4c8O3FGZSNuw

I am a junior naval officer and member of the Arctic Ocean Geopolitics Programme at the Scott Polar Research Institute. Recently, I have been exploring the increasingly dangerous gap between national and international maritime governance structures in the ice-diminishing Arctic Ocean. After my studies, I will serve in the U.S. Submarine Force.

I'm pursuing a PhD degree in history, with an emphasis on European intellectual history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. My research at Cambridge focuses on contemporary developments in moral philosophy, theology, and the reading of classical authors in mid-eighteenth-century Scotland, England, France and Germany, and involves an intensive study of the Scottish philosopher William Cleghorn.

Previous Education

United States Military Academy B.S. Civil Engineering 2002

Broadly speaking, Scott is interested in the nature and measurement of human intelligence. Specifically, he is interested in the relationship between working memory and intelligence, artistic creativity, and the implications of theories of intelligence for special populations (gifted, learning disabled) as well as those undergoing psychotherapy.

I am studying for an MPhil degree in Polar Studies at the Scott Polar Research Institute. I have always loved space, and plan to spend my career looking for life on Mars. I even hope to be an astronaut someday and to conduct fieldwork on Mars.

Marc Mierowsky is a McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow in English and Theatre Studies at the University of Melbourne. He is one of the editors of The Correspondence of Daniel Defoe (Cambridge UP, 2021) and co-editor with Nicholas Seager of Defoe’s Roxana for Oxford World’s Classics (Oxford UP, 2022). His monograph A Spy Amongst Us: Defoe’s Secret Service and the Campaign to End Scottish Independence is forthcoming with Yale University Press.

Links

https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/843332-marc-mierowsky

I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, in the beautiful northwest USA. My academic background is in hydrology (MS), mechanical engineering (HBS), and international studies (HBA) with minors in mathematics and Spanish. I am also an avid mountaineer and global traveller with strong humanitarian leanings. These recreational pursuits have inspired me to focus my academic interests to glaciology and alpine hydrology. My proposed research at the Scott Polar Research Institute investigates the retreat of Himalayan glaciers to predict the formation of hazardous lakes, which can have catastrophic impacts on downstream communities. Glaciology and hydrology will increase in importance through the 21st century as the impacts of climate change become more profound and marginal communities are increasingly affected.

Links

https://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/people/e.miles
https://twitter.com/Miles_of_Ice
http://gatescambridge.org/our-scholars/spotlight.asp?ItemID=14010

I graduated with an anthropology degree from the University of Chicago armed with a background in social justice and sensitivity to how policies often exclude the most vulnerable people. I’ve spent the last five years learning how this is particularly acute in climate and environmental monitoring programs. I’ve worked at the science-policy interface at both the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Center for Space Policy and Strategy. While earth observation satellites and vast data systems can enable better insights at the planetary level, they often miss realities on the ground. Wanting to critically examine how the science-policy interface and our digital data infrastructures impact local communities, I came to the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge to conduct ethnographic and science and technology studies (STS) research at the world’s “third pole” in the Himalayas. Like the polar regions, the Himalayas must also grapple with consequences of a melting cryosphere, while managing a microcosm of considerable ecological and cultural diversity. Through my research, I aim to shed light on culturally embedded notions of science and technology and how they can translate into better climate policies.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge Polar Studies 2021
University of Chicago Anthropology 2012

Amanda Scott is the Industrial and Environmental Product and Applications Manager at Sievers Instruments by SUEZ. She has a Masters in Chemical Engineering from University of Cambridge in England and a Bachelors of Chemical Engineering from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. For the past three years, her focus has been to develop and support organics monitoring solutions for industrial and environmental markets.

Amanda has been published in multiple trade journals and has presented at various national and international water conferences. Her research experiences include work developing biophotovoltaic devices and biomass gasification using concentrated solar power to generate renewable energy. When she is not working, Amanda enjoys running and is a two-time US Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier.

Previous Education

Vanderbilt University Bachelors of Engineering in Chemical Engineering 2009

I direct the UCL European Institute, UCL’s hub for research on Europe, which I co-founded in 2010. As Pro-Vice-Provost (Europe) I also advise the university on strategic partnerships with European universities and provide leadership for UCL's Brexit mitigation. My research sits at the intersection of modern European thought, culture and politics. I’m currently a member of the Russell Group EU Advisory Group and the Advisory Board of the Scottish Council on European Relations, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts.

During my undergraduate degree in Geography at Cambridge I became fascinated with glaciology, leading me to pursue an MPhil degree in Polar Studies at the Scott Polar Research Institute. My research interests have gradually become focussed on Antarctic ice shelves – the floating extensions of outlet glaciers that restrain the discharge of glacial ice into the ocean. Under increasing atmospheric temperatures vast meltwater systems are likely to become more prevalent across ice shelves in Antarctica, which poses a threat to their stability as water provides a powerful mechanism of driving fractures through the ice. In my doctoral research, I will continue to focus on the stability of ice shelves in Antarctica. Using remote sensing and machine learning techniques I will set out to produce a continent-wide, three-dimensional dataset of meltwater storage and potential flow pathways on Antarctic ice shelves. In this way, I endeavour to further our understanding of the sensitivity of the Antarctic ice sheet to anthropogenic climate change and thereby hope to contribute to a growing body of scientific literature that informs policymaking in a time of environmental crisis.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge Polar Studies 2024
University of Cambridge Geography 2022