Directory

My background in Veterinary Medicine has provided me with a substantial scientific and clinical foundation. It has proven advantageous since I made a deliberate decision years ago to pursue a research career. Additionally, volunteer social engagement has enabled me to serve my society in Egypt in various aspects. My prior involvement in research in France, Spain, Japan and the UK has equipped me with valuable experiences. During my MSc in Neuroscience at Bordeaux University, I investigated the impact of epigenetic regulators on cortical development and related neurological disorders using brain organoids. I continued to work in this domain as a research assistant at Lakatos Lab.In my PhD, I would like to focus on an incurable disease called Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). I aim to explore the impact of mutations causing early-onset disease on cortical development using a 3D human neural organoid system. By understanding this, I hope to identify epigenetic regulators that might contribute to disease development and can be targeted for drug discovery. I am grateful for the opportunity to join the Gates Cambridge community and feel privileged to contribute to a group that values both intellectual and social excellence equally.

Born and bred in the economic capital of South Africa, Johannesburg, I transitioned from an academic research background in biochemistry to the burgeoning field of biotechnology. I now aim to bridge the gap between scientific discovery and real-world application in the Global South. My journey began in muddy waters researching the impacts of invasive water hyacinths during high school, after which I completed a BSc in Biochemistry (Hons.) and a MSc in Molecular and Cell Biology by research at the University of the Witwatersrand. Thereafter, I worked with a South African biotechnology company for a year, where I learned to integrate scientific product development with business feasibility and regulatory considerations to provide integrated scientific advice to the executive team. Upon my return to South Africa, I hope to use the cross-functional toolkit and practical bioscience enterprise training from the Cambridge MBE to drive system-wide innovation as a founder or as a leader in an existing biotechnology firm and thereby enable a competitive biotechnology sector in the country.

Previous Education

University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Molecular and Cell Biology 2023
University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Biochemistry and Cell Biology 2020

As a Christian who grew up in religious circles, questions about theology and religion have always been on my mind especially as it pertains to the Holy Spirit. This is because I observed how people are often manipulated and exploited by those who claim to be special possessors of the Spirit. I have also observed how churches refuse to engage in matters of social justice in the name of the Spirit. It seems to me that these negative practices thrive mostly on confusion about the identity and activity of the Spirit. This situation troubled me and so I sought to do something about it. My Ph.D. in Theology and Religion aims to change the status quo by explicating and presenting Friedrich Schleiermacher’s doctrine of the Spirit as a viable alternative. Schleiermacher’s doctrine of the Spirit is of particular interest to me precisely because of its simplicity, depth, openness to social engagement, and potential to combat harmful ideas about the Spirit in Christian communities. I also aim to show its relevance for Christian theology and the community of believers both in my country and beyond.

Previous Education

The University of Edinburgh Theology 2024
Theol Col of Northern Nigeria Theology 2023
Theol Col of Northern Nigeria Theology 2021

Since leaving Syria during the war, my goal has been to try to understand human behaviour in its most fundamental aspects. What is it that makes people think and act, individually and communally, in the way that they do? To this end, I am carrying out a doctorate in biological anthropology, a discipline which seeks to answer these questions through analysis of our physical makeup and deep history. Specifically, through the application of the principles and tools of the evolutionary sciences, biological anthropology aims to uncover ‘human nature’ in its broadest and most universal aspects. My particular area of research is the cause of our success as a species: is this to be attributed more to our powers of theoretical understanding, or to our ability to follow, transmit, and refine cultural norms and practices? I intend to conduct a series of experiments and develop a range of computational models to investigate the issue. I am incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to work with the Gates Foundation. With their support, I hope to expand our understanding of the human species, i.e. each other, and thereby make a world with fewer man-made tragedies.

Previous Education

University College London Human Evolution and Behaviour 2024
Heriot-Watt University, Dubai Psychology with Management 2016

Growing up in Kansas City, Missouri, I knew I was passionate about improving my community through engineering, education, and collaboration. I attended the University of Kansas where I completed a BSc in Civil Engineering. I was involved in research that investigated the relationship between socioeconomic vulnerability, historic redlining policies, and modern urban flooding. Such research ignited my interest in the intersection between people, policy, and engineering. After working at multiple infrastructure firms in Kansas City, I began to recognize the opportunities for more comprehensive and compassionate leadership in community planning and public infrastructure design.
I am pursuing an MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development because modern communities face ever-changing challenges. I plan to use my coursework to guide my career as an engineer on projects that prioritize sustainability and provide people with the fundamental resources and services needed to engage with their communities. I am incredibly honored to be a recipient of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship and excited to connect with scholars united in the mission to build a better tomorrow.

Previous Education

University of Kansas Civil Engineering 2024

Growing up between my American and Sudanese communities ignited my passion for working in international development. I am particularly interested in women’s rights in the context of peace-building initiatives in Sudan. Specifically, I aim to explore various post-conflict reintegration pathways for women. My undergraduate academic concentrations included international human rights and political economics. Through my previous research at Cambridge, Oxford, and American University, I investigated women’s experiences of displacement and structural violence in situations of post-conflict rebuilding. My hands-on experience in international development includes working with NGOs to tackle housing insecurity and children’s rights in South America, capacity-building programs for young people in rural Morocco and Sudan, and refugee and education equity organizations in the US and UK. As a Gates Cambridge scholar, I will study the gendered dimensions of Sudanese displacement in an effort to reimagine women’s political, social, and economic reintegration pathways. 

Previous Education

American University Washington International Studies 2023

Growing up in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir gave me an insight into the limitations in the ascribed definition of secular, democratic nation-states. The public movements that emerged in the region in 2000’s and 2010’s gave me an understanding into the varying vulnerabilities that are unleashed on people in a conflict zone, whose trials are levelled and homogenised in the articulation of a singular, resisting nationalism. Internships and social activities on the ground helped me realise the nature and extent of internal hierarchies that exist in the region along the lines of caste, class, gender, religion, ethnicity and sexual orientation. My research interests, that I will be carrying out at the University of Cambridge, will focus on the vocabulary of landscapes as it is emerges in the cultural production emanating from the region. It will try to answer the question why Kashmiri creators go back to the cliched signifiers associated with the region by British colonial photography and Bollywood filmography. And explore the possibility of landscapes enforcing an urban and upper caste national symbology.

Previous Education

Jamia Millia Islamia English 2023
University of Dehli (Lady Shri Ram College) English 2020

I am a multidisciplinary decolonial feminist scholar with an atypical academic journey. My 2023 MA (by Research) in Historical Studies, my first university degree, investigated the dress choices of Creole Mauritian women. My PhD aims to further dissect this sartorial narrative, emphasising its aspects of gendered, racial and cultural resistance. I am committed to exploring and advocating for the identity and voice of Black women, particularly within the context of Mauritian colonial and patriarchal legacies and their persistent socio-cultural effects. My research interwines community engagement and artistic methodologies. Before my MA, I engaged in support and advocacy for various communities, later transitioning into diversity and inclusion education and consultancy. I led ‘Project One Heart’, focusing on the stories of families of Colour and families of marginalised genders across Australia. Additionally, I contributed to various research projects, with publications on the narratives of Black Creole women, their defiance against oppressive systems, and intersectionality within the Indian Ocean region. Notably, I co-authored and co-edited the groundbreaking book ‘Women in the Making of Mauritian History’ in 2021.

Previous Education

University of Mauritius History (Hist6000) 2023
University of Western Australia Law & Society/Political Scienc

As a medical graduate and an aspiring physician-scientist, I wish to contribute to improving women's health by integrating my medical background with fundamental research. During my medical education, I was struck by the remarkable need for more efficient screening and definitive treatment approaches to obstetrical complications. Therefore, I am interested in extra-embryonic lineage differentiation and obstetric complications stemming from defective placentation. During my MPhil project in Boroviak Lab, I worked on a microfluidic-based human stem cell model to elucidate the mechanisms of amnion and embryonic disc formation. By continuing with a PhD in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, I will further focus on early placental development. I am passionate about addressing the gender-based knowledge gap in fundamental research, creating translational experimental models with clinical applicability to enhance women's healthcare, and advocating for equal access to healthcare services. I feel truly honoured to be joining the Gates Cambridge community of inspiring and dynamic scholars.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge Biological Sciences, R&E Path 2024
Yeditepe University Medicine 2023

As an associate at an international law firm, I maintained an active pro bono practice that included working with organizations challenging some of the most restrictive abortion bans that surfaced in the US following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Through this work, I began to consider the myriad of ways in which consumers’ personal data was primed to serve as sources of evidence in such proceedings. One source of data specifically seemed a particular source of risk—FemTech, a type of technology created to address the otherwise-underserved needs related to women’s reproductive health. And a type of technology that has existed in an a dearth of regulation, considering the sensitive information it contains. 

Through melding my passion for women’s rights and my longstanding research interest in issues regarding law and technology, my thesis topic was created. After finding such intellectual enrichment at Cambridge as an MPhil student in POLIS, I knew this project could find no better home. To return to Cambridge for my PhD as a Gates scholar, and for my work to benefit from the perspectives of this community of brilliant peers and colleagues, is all the more special.

Previous Education

University of Pennsylvania Law 2021
University of Cambridge International Relations 2018

I grew up in Jurupa Valley, California and attended the University of California, Riverside, where I completed a Bachelor of Arts in Media and Cultural Studies. My undergraduate education at UCR, combined with my experience as a visiting film studies student at Queen Mary University of London in 2019, provided me with the opportunity to study film in a stimulating interdisciplinary context. Combining sociohistorical and aesthetic methodologies, I developed my academic specialism, which is to analyze film form to interpret symbolism, metaphor, and philosophical meaning with the objective of exploring the representation of women in genre cinema. As a Film and Screen Studies student at Cambridge, I aim to expand upon my undergraduate research to produce scholarship that explores maternal horror in relation to the topics of motherhood, childbearing, and reproductive agency. Alongside my work in the academy, I plan to be a film producer, where I can champion nuanced, women-centered Latinx stories. I am deeply honored to be a Gates Cambridge Scholar and hope to pay it forward by ultimately creating a scholarship program of my own, one designed to provide vital resources and support to the next generation of arts and humanities scholars.

Previous Education

Queen Mary, University of London Study Abroad Program 2020
University of California Riverside Media and Cultural Studies 2020

Coming from a family of medical professionals, science was ingrained in me from an early age. I was raised in Istanbul where I had the opportunity of higher education at Sabanci University. There, I discovered the transformative power of materials science with the guidance of my professors. I was drawn to materials science for its potential to tackle global challenges, and the intersection of materials science and healthcare innovation is where my academic interests converge. I recently completed my master's degree at EPFL and have since been engaged in interdisciplinary work. Beyond the laboratory, I've developed an appreciation for the oceans and the urgent need to protect marine ecosystems as a scuba diver.Embarking on the next chapter of my journey, I'm honoured to be joining the Gates Cambridge community. With this esteemed scholarship, I will pursue a Ph.D. at the Cambridge Centre for Medical Materials, which will provide me with the necessary resources, expertise, and collaborative opportunities to further explore this field and contribute meaningfully to society. Through my research, I aim to make healthcare tools and equipment more accessible for all in need, which is not the case in our contemporary society.

Previous Education

Ecole Polytechnique federale de lausanne Materials Science 2022
Sabanci University Bioengineering 2019

Acquiring knowledge and skills has always been a passion of mine. I first started coding at 13, being the only girl and person of colour in my course. I quickly realised that I had to work hard to earn my place in technology and AI. At the age of 15, I started visiting university lectures in various subjects ranging from Computer Science to Philosophy and Cybernetics. I quickly developed an interest in the complexities of AI. Thus, I completed a BSc in AI and Robotics and continued with an MSc in AI and Natural Language Processing. Simultaneously, I worked with a humanoid robot at the German Aerospace Center and later explored the societal impacts of AI at the Ada Lovelace Institute. I have been an active member of various organisations that raise awareness of algorithmic bias and AI literacy while empowering people from marginalised communities to follow their goals in AI. With a passion for bridging cultural and linguistic divides, I aspire to lead research initiatives through my PhD that contribute to the development of responsible and inclusive AI systems, ensuring that language technologies are accessible, fair, and culturally sensitive across diverse communities worldwide.

Previous Education

Queen Mary, University of London Artificial Intelligence 2023
University of Bedfordshire AI and Robotics 2022

Before my masters in Cambridge, I studied Egyptology and Art History at Leiden University, The Netherlands. My main interests as an art historian include 18th-century British architecture, the influence of Egypt on design, and the relationship between art and identity creation. During my PhD, I will study the depiction of architecture, especially country houses, in so-called topographical drawings and prints in 18th-century Britain. These works revealed an almost hidden part of the country to the middle class. In doing so, they contributed to the construction of a national taste and identity in a time where Britain was strongly polarised because of industrialisation and urbanisation. My long-term goal is to make a difference in the protection of architectural heritage, and I strongly believe that saving heritage starts with getting people more enthusiastic about it. My PhD will contribute to making country houses more popular and accessible and help us to protect these places that are not only places of memory but also of connection, both with our past and with each other. Next to my studies, I am active as classical percussionist and soprano, and look forward to sharing my passion for art and music with the Gates community.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge History of Art & Architecture 2024
Rijksuniversiteit Leiden (Leiden Univ) Art, Architecture and Interior 2023
Rijksuniversiteit Leiden (Leiden Univ) History of Art 2022

Through my undergraduate degree in biology at the California Institute of Technology, I became fascinated by biochemistry and structural biology. These disciplines enable scientists to understand the molecular basis of cell processes and disease. At Cambridge, I will complete an MPhil in Biological Science in Dr. Lori Passmore’s group at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. My MPhil project will explore the role of protein adaptors in guiding targeted deadenylation of mRNAs. This research will help define the rules governing the interactions of adaptor proteins with deadenylating complexes to regulate gene expression. Deadenylation is one strategy used by cells for restricting gene expression. If an RNA must be degraded to stop expression, its poly(A) tail is removed through deadenylation. Thus, deadenylation allows for gene expression programs to change rapidly in response to cellular cues. This project will promote advances in medicine and human health by establishing a basis for future research on new tools to manage gene expression during disease. I am pleased to be part of the Gates Cambridge program and look forward to working alongside students performing cutting-edge research to improve the human condition.

Previous Education

California Institute of Technology Biology 2024

Originally from Monterey, CA I completed my BS in Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley after transferring from Monterey Peninsula College. Throughout my educational career, I developed my passion for research in synthetic biology, mentorship, and outreach. At Cambridge, I hope to overcome contemporary uropathogenic Escherichia coli antibiotic resistance and other bacterial resistance towards UTIs through the discovery of novel alternatives to traditional beta-lactam antibiotics. After my PhD, I hope to continue research projects that will advance global health as well as increase diversity in STEM education.

Previous Education

University of California, Berkeley Chemical Engineering 2023
Monterey Peninsula College Chemical Engineering 2021

I hold a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Nigeria, where I was introduced to the concept of energy efficiency and its significance in improving energy access. Pursuing an MPhil in Energy Technologies offered an opportunity to understand, in-depth, the existing energy systems and evaluation tools in green economies and further explore transferable lessons in energy transition applicable to developing countries like mine. Recognising the impact of energy research in buildings, especially in my country, I am committed to contributing original research that advances our understanding of building energy performance. My proposed PhD research aims to integrate Human-Centric Design principles with energy management systems to minimise operational energy use in buildings. My overarching goal is to leverage my expertise to design efficient and affordable solutions that improve demand-side management in the built environment and address energy access challenges for at-need communities. I am very excited about engaging in the innovative research environment at the EECI lab as a Gates scholar. Through my research endeavours, I aspire to contribute positively to the energy landscape, both in Nigeria and beyond.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge Energy Technologies 2024
Federal University of Technology Owerri Mechanical Engineering 2021

Growing up amidst the turmoil of Libya during the war, I used to observe how people reacted differently to the same environment; their mental health journeys diverging along unpredictable paths. I became mystified by the resilience and vulnerability of the human mind, and later earned a Psychology BA from the American University of Beirut as a MEPI-TL scholar.After pursuing a career in Psychosocial Support with the United Nations, I realised the roots of these issues delved far deeper than surface-level support could reach. I then earned an MSc in clinical Neuroscience from UCL as a Chevening scholar and worked as a research assistant at the University of Cambridge. My PhD utilises advanced In Vivo imaging and Optogenetic techniques to study specific neuronal circuit components in genetic mouse models of neurodevelopmental disorders and healthy mice during visually guided decision-making. My goal is to uncover what influences proficient and deficient sensory discrimination, fostering knowledge that destigmatises and guides tailored neuropsychiatric treatments, ultimately transforming patients' lives. Being a Gates scholar is both an honour and a responsibility, which I intend to uphold by bridging my research with activism.

Previous Education

University College London Clinical Neuroscience 2022
American University of Beirut Psychology 2020