The event will bring together alumni, scholars and leading experts to debate key global issues
The Biennial is an opportunity to energise Alumni and Scholars to achieve the mission of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship to improve the lives of others and also to increase the strength and impact of our global network.
Professor Barry Everitt
A major gathering of future leaders committed to improving the lives of others takes place this summer at the inaugural Gates Cambridge Biennial.
The opening keynote speaker at the event, which takes place in Cambridge from 15-17 July, will be Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International and a global expert on women’s rights. The event will conclude with a plenary session on the future of space by Astronomer Royal Lord Martin Rees, Public Astronomer Dr Carolin Crawford and space journalist and science broadcaster Sarah Cruddas.
The Biennial, which will be hosted by the Gates Cambridge Trust, in conjunction with the Gates Cambridge Alumni Association and the Scholars' Council, includes a wide range of panel discussions and roundtables on topics ranging from decarbonising the global economy and big data governance to geoengineering climate change and the future of medicine. There will be world cafés on open source democracy and migration in the 21st century and a poetry session on culture in defiance. Professional development sessions on topics such as the art of negotiation and career development are also scheduled.
Other speakers include the eminent philosopher Baroness Onora O’Neill; Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe, Director of the Centre for Community, Gender and Social Justice at the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology; Professor David Runciman, Head of the Department of Politics and International Relations at Cambridge; Aleyn Smith-Gillespie, Associate Director at the Carbon Trust; and Dr Tim Kruger, James Martin Fellow and Programme Manager at Oxford University’s Geoengineering Programme.
The event will also provide a platform for Gates Cambridge Alumni and Scholars, many of whom are already making an impact in their chosen fields, to speak on each of the panels. They include, among others, Julia Fan Li [2009], Senior VP, Seven Bridges Genomics and former Director of the Global Health Investment Fund; Joseph Bonneau [2008], Technology Fellow at the Electronic Frontier Foundation; Jaya Savige [2008], poet and Poetry Editor of The Australian newspaper; Vitor Pinheiro [2001], Group Leader and Lecturer in Synthetic Biology at the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, University College London; Johanna Riha [2010], Policy Director of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health; and Isaac Holeman [2013], Co-founder of Medic Mobile.
The Gates Cambridge Scholarship is the University of Cambridge’s, and one of the world’s premier scholarship programmes for international postgraduate students. Scholars are chosen based on their outstanding intellectual ability, their leadership potential and their commitment to improving the lives of others. The Scholarship was established through a US$210 million donation to the University of Cambridge from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000, which remains the largest single donation to a UK university. Since the first class of Scholars in 2001 more than 1,500 Gates Cambridge Scholarships have been awarded to Scholars from 103 countries and 600 universities.
Professor Barry Everitt, Provost of the Gates Cambridge Trust, views this first Biennial event as a major opportunity “to energise Alumni and Scholars to achieve the mission of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship to improve the lives of others and also to increase the strength and impact of our global network."
Gates Cambridge Alumni who wish to attend can register at https://www.gatescambridge.org/biennial2016. Current Scholars will be able to register from the end of March.
