Gates Cambridge is an international scholarship programme at the University of Cambridge for outstanding postgraduate students who share a potential for social leadership and a desire to improve the lives of others.

2025/6 Highlights

• We launched our pilot Leading with Purpose programme, supported by a series of talks about leadership, a panel on leading with courage featuring four alumni and a special series of our So, now what? podcast on leadership.
• We shared our 25th anniversary ‘Ripple Effect’ campaign on social media, which was recognised through three major industry awards.
• Scholars organised an international global scholar exchange with fellow international scholarships in the UK.
• We participated in an intellectual retreat on AI, innovation and entrepreneurship for founders and senior executives, organised by the Trust in collaboration with the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College & Bridgehouse and co-led by seven scholars and four Cambridge senior academics. 

• We celebrated 25 years of Gates Cambridge at the Gates Cambridge Weekend - three days of activities, talks and events reuniting friends from across our cohorts.

INTERNATIONALITY

Gates Cambridge is a global network which values people from different countries and cultures.

Here are just a few of our 2025 Gates Cambridge scholars:

• Ere Derbez, an author and illustrator from Mexico, whose PhD in Latin American Studies is about how public art can be used to change the narrative about violence and its victims in Mexico.  
• Blessing Abodunrin, from Nigeria, whose PhD in Pathology explores the novel field of histone lactylation and its impact on the virulence of malaria parasites.​
• Robin  Bauknecht, from Germany, whose PhD in Zoology seeks to better understand the intricate dynamics of nature at scale: where species occur, how they move through and use landscapes, and how they respond to a rapidly changing world. 
• Pranav Ganta, from the United States, whose MPhil in Global Risk and Resilience focuses on developing frameworks for governing and de-risking emerging technologies at the intersection of the digital world and life sciences - a field called cyberbiosecurity.
• Yu Huang, from China, whose PhD in Earth Sciences explores the role of ancient agriculture in changing global environments. 

COMPASSION

Gates Cambridge is a community that cares deeply for others and supports each other.

Some stand-out examples from the year are:​

• The Gates Cambridge Day of Service, organised by the Scholars’ Council. 36 Scholars took part in a day dedicated to assisting local community organisations targeting food insecurity, housing insecurity and environmental degradation. This is a Gates Cambridge tradition that was revived by this year's cohort and expanded to include Alumni Scholars.
• Last October Greg Nance [2011] became the first person to run the 2,000-mile+ length of the Mississippi River to help raise awareness and funding for his non-profit Run Far Foundation, which seeks to support youth mental health efforts.
• The Palestine Educational Opportunity Initiative (Pal Ed), started by Gates Cambridge Scholars, was set up to support Palestinian students with university admissions. Listen to Scholars Ana Rojo Fierro and Usama Mirza speak about their role in the project in a 2026 episode of the Gates Cambridge podcast, So, now what?, on leading with hope. 

CHANGE

This year remarkable examples of how Gates Cambridge Scholars improve the lives of others and drive positive social change have included:

• Ilana Walder-Biesanz [2013] founder and CEO of  National Math Stars, an NGO that works to develop the mathematical talents of extraordinary students, was named one of five recipients of a $5 million Bezos Courage & Civility Award in January.​
• Alessio Ciulli [2002], the founder and Director of the University of Dundee’s Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation, was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2025, a historic first within the Gates Cambridge community.​
• In June Hoang Minh Hieu Nguyen [2023] was featured as one of Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia: Healthcare & Science list for his work on gene mutations that may cause cancer and for his role as an advisor to the World Telehealth Initiative, a non-profit that tries to bring long-distance medical services to underserved communities globally.​