Two scholars share Bill Gates Sr. Award

  • May 4, 2017
Two scholars share Bill Gates Sr. Award

Fabrice Langronet and Victoria Herrmann are sharing the prize after being nominated by their peers.

Two Gates Cambridge Scholars have won the fifth annual Bill Gates Sr. Award for in recognition of their outstanding research and social leadership.

The two Scholars – Fabrice Langronet and Victoria Herrmann – have been awarded the Bill Gates Sr. Award for 2017.

The Award was established by the Gates Cambridge Trustees in June 2012 in recognition of Bill Gates Sr.’s role in establishing the Gates Cambridge Scholarships, over a decade of service as a Trustee, and his engagement with, and inspiration to, many generations of Gates Cambridge Scholars.

The Award allows Scholars to recognise the impact and contribution to the Scholar community of one of their peers (who may be pursuing any subject and be from any part of the world), with particular reference to the Scholarship’s selection criteria.

Scholars were asked to nominate a fellow Scholar for the Award by completing a 500-word statement about why that Scholar would be a suitable recipient. Selection was on the basis of how well the nominated candidates met the selection criteria while in residence in Cambridge. It is the second year running that the award has been shared.

Fabrice [2014], who is doing a PhD in History,  was recognised for his innovative research on migration history, which he explores from the vantage point of a tenement unit in the northern suburbs of Paris at the turn of the 20th century. The value of his research is being recognised by his peers in major historical journals and conferences in Europe and America, combining a refined post-structuralist theory, a microhistorical approach and a far-reaching transnational scope. His investigation led him to visit, over the past two years, over fifty archival sites in four countries, and interview more than 60 people in France, Spain, Italy, Scotland and the United States. The value of his research is being recognised by his peers in major historical journals and conferences in Europe and America.

He was also praised for his work on migration issues, with which he first became familiar as a judge specialising in immigration law and as a speechwriter for the President of the French Republic. Fabrice co-founded the Cambridge Migration Society, of which he is President and which allows high-ranking professionals to exchange views with the Cambridge academic community and deepen their understanding of each other's positions and practices. The society has organised several events featuring experts from around the world, including a high-level panel on the Mediterranean refugee crisis and another on Syrian refugees. Fabrice also spoke at the Gates Cambridge Scholar Forum on Migration in Budapest and has written a forthcoming article about the deportation of migrant children in the Human Rights Law Review.

One nominator called him "inspiring, innovative and always upbeat" and added "Fabrice has displayed outstanding human qualities that have quickly made him popular among his fellow Gates scholars".

Victoria [2014], who is doing a PhD in Polar Studies, was nominated for her outstanding work in the field of climate change where she is described as “a fierce advocate creating waves across the field”.

Beyond her PhD work focusing on human development, climate change and adaptation in the Arctic, she is Managing Director at The Arctic Institute where she leads the Institute’s research on climate change and community adaptation in Arctic communities. She is the author of Arctic Melt: Turning Resource Extraction into Human Development (2015) and has been published across many peer-review journals. She was also praised for her public engagement work, including media appearances on the CNN, BBC, NPR, Radio Canada in addition to articles in the Washington Post, Guardian and New York Times, amongst many others.

As a National Geographic Explorer, Victoria spearheaded and led America’s Eroding Edges, a research and storytelling project on the impacts of climate change on coastal communities and livelihoods that will be shared through articles, a book and a documentary.

She has also co-convened the Pocantico Climate & Cultural Heritage Working Group, a working group of high-level cultural heritage leaders engaged in climate change adaptation and migration efforts. In addition, she is Principle Investigator for Micro-grids, Macro-projects & Arctic Renewable Energy, leading on creating a bilateral expert network to research and publish on renewable energy and innovation in the North American Arctic. She has also been an active member of the Gates Cambridge community and was Alumni Officer on the Gates Cambridge Scholars Council.

One of her nominators wrote simply: “Victoria Herrmann is the sort of person on whom – without exaggeration – the world pins its hope.”

Another wrote: “Victoria recognises that climate change is not just, and not even primarily, about rising temperatures and glacial melt. It is about villages destroyed, families forced to move, children going hungry.”

The graduation dinner followed the second annual Gates Cambridge Day of Research [https://www.gatescambridge.org/news/day-research-2017] which saw 12 Scholars give presentations about their research and many others take part in panel discussions and workshops. Subjects covered ranged from how cognitive science can illuminate Brexit to the links between democracy, contemporary forms of imprisonment and the history of the Panama Canal in World War One to how to spread the benefits that some plants derive from a more efficient version of photosynthesis to cereal crops.

 

Fabrice Langrognet

Fabrice Langrognet

  • Alumni
  • France
  • 2014 PhD History
  • St John's College

Before studying at Cambridge, I served for almost five years as a judge in the administrative branch of the French judiciary. I specialized in immigration and asylum cases, a field I had previously discovered as a volunteer in a French NGO providing help to asylum seekers. In addition, I have also worked as a speechwriter for the President of the French Republic, as a member of the editorial board of an international affairs newsmagazine, as an expert for the French Ministry of Culture on legal issues raised by digital arts, and as an adjunct lecturer at Sciences-Po and ENS. My interests and previous experience have led me to conduct research in migration studies at both master’s and Ph.D. levels.

Victoria Herrmann

Victoria Herrmann

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2014 PhD Polar Studies at Scott Polar Institute
  • Pembroke College

Victoria is interested in exploring the nexus of climate change, human development, and public policy in the Arctic. Her PhD research focuses on how images and aesthetic codes construct values, identities, and ideas of power in the Arctic since the Second World War. From a young age Victoria's grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, has inspired her to pursue a career promoting social justice and empowerment. During her undergraduate degree, she followed that inspiration through two emerging personal interests - art and environmentalism. Through internships at The Smithsonian Institution and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she helped to create programs to bring different, often contentious, communities together through museum educational events. At the Untied Nations and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, she later worked on research, writing, and advocacy for climate justice, urban resiliency in socioeconomically depressed neighbourhoods, and mitigation. Though passionate about art, climate change, and social justice individually, it was not until her Fulbright research that Victoria was able to bring her three disparate interests together. During her year in Canada, she studied how indigenous civil society groups used visual media to empower their voices at climate change negotiations. At Cambridge, she continues this multidisciplinary approach to scholarship by examining the changing visual narratives of geopolitics in the Arctic and its influence on perceptions of power, justice, and agency. As the Alumni Officer Victoria works closely with the Gates Cambridge Alumni Association to connect the scholar and alumni communities.

Latest News

How might extreme heat contribute to human migration?

Rising temperatures due to climate change are likely influencing human migration patterns, according to a new study co-authored by Gates Cambridge Scholar Dr Kim van Daalen [2018]. The study, led by Rita Issa of University College London, is published today in the open-access journal PLOS Climate. It looks at the role of heat in human […]

Scholar scoops prestigious science innovation fellowship

Freja Ekman has been named one of the 2023 class of Hertz Fellows as the prestigious fellowship celebrates its 60th year. The 15 fellowships in applied science, engineering and mathematics are awarded by Fannie and John Hertz Foundation, a non-profit organisation for innovators in science and technology. Winners will have their graduate studies funded for […]

Scholar hosts first UN communications technology access meeting in India

Gates Cambridge Scholar Pradipta Biswas has hosted a UN meeting on improving access to communications technology – the first ever held in India. The meeting of ITU-T Study Group 9 (SG-9) on “Broadband Cable and Television/Audiovisual content transmission and integrated broadband cable networks”  was held in May at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru […]

The role of storytelling in addressing colonial trauma

When she was growing up, Briseyda Barrientos Ariza [2023] spent her childhood summers in rural Guatemala, visiting her grandparents. In the evenings she would listen to her grandfather, a man who couldn’t read or write, tell intricate stories about his and others’ encounters with female folkloric figures. Two stood out in particular: La Llorona and […]