Directory

I have spent the better part of recent years involved in biomedical research. The course at Cambridge is an initial step away from the lab into a broader perspective on health, encompassing societal and political aspects. After completing my time in Cambridge I will be returning to the United States to start up medical school. In the future, I hope to work at the interface between medicine, ethics, policy, and economics.

Mohita Bhatia is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Saint Mary’s University. Previously she has been a Fulbright postdoctoral scholar and a visiting fellow at the Centre for South Asia, Stanford University. Her research interests encompass the ethnography of ethno-national conflicts; refugees, citizenship practices, everyday nationalism and border-making, and diaspora studies. She is the author of Rethinking Conflict at the Margins: Dalits and Borderland Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir (Cambridge University Press, 2020).

I grew up in Lucknow, India and moved to the US to attend the University of Pennsylvania, where I am majoring in history of science with a minor in Russian studies. My research interests are situated at the generative intersection of environmental history and science and technology studies, with a focus on South Asia. The question that lies at the center of my research is: what can history teach us about the environmental problems we are mired in today? But these interests are more than scholarly. As we confront a world with a fast changing climate, more and more of us realize that the environmental is also the emotional. As an MPhil student in the History and Philosophy of Science Department at Cambridge, I hope to better understand how we might bring a historical sensibility to our contemporary discussions about remediating the climate crisis. I am thrilled to work along these lines as part of a community of incredibly driven Gates Cambridge scholars who are committed to solving some of the most pressing challenges of our times.

Previous Education

University of Pennsylvania Science, Technology & Society 2021

Growing up in a small town in Bengal, I turned sensitive to conflicts between communities and identities from an early age. While pursuing my BA in English (Hons.) at Presidency University, Kolkata, my MA in English at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and my MPhil. in Social Sciences at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, I became interested in how literary and cultural forms share a reciprocal relationship with political ideations and events. As a firm believer in public-facing academic work, I have also curated and written extensively on gender, culture, and literature. Further, teaching undergraduate students at the Jindal Global Law School in India has taught me the transformative potential of pedagogic spaces and the need for an egalitarian academic atmosphere. The steep rise of political incarceration in contemporary India has motivated my doctoral project which traces prison experiences of Indian women activists in literary and archival expressions. Through my scholarship and community engagement, I hope to explore how conditions of marginalisation enable responsibility, solidarity, and hope.

Previous Education

Jadavpur University Social Sciences 2019
Jawaharlal Nehru University English 2017

I was born in Kolkata, India, and spent my early childhood in Thailand and Vietnam before settling in Los Angeles. Excited by neurotechnology, I pursued a BS in Biomedical Engineering and Applied Mathematics & Statistics at Johns Hopkins University with a joint focus in computational neuroscience. My goal is to derive life-saving insight from the vast data collected in the treatment of severe brain injury. During my PhD, I aim to develop pattern recognition algorithms that prioritise traumatic brain injury patient information, deliver precise prognoses and visualise interpretable features to inform real-time decision making. Upon integration into bedside monitors of the neurosciences critical care unit, this system would enable the development of evidence-supported treatment plans catered to each patient's needs. In turn, I hope this work leads to improved clinical outcomes, greater autonomy for brain injury patient families and improved access to neurocritical care in remote areas. I am very excited to join the Gates Cambridge community! The lifelong friendships I will build with future leaders across disciplinary and political boundaries will enhance the global impact of my work while enriching my world view.

Previous Education

Johns Hopkins University 1. Biomed Eng 2. Applied Math 2020

As is common in the majority of developing countries, there is an absence of basic resources needed to treat a variety of illnesses. My home country of Zimbabwe is no different. This lack of fundamental infrastructure is what has driven me to acquire knowledge that will allow me to treat and prevent such diseases. During my undergraduate studies, I developed an appreciation of the molecular complexity of diseases that drives disease pathogenesis, an appreciation that is critical in informing prevention and treatment options. I intend to further explore these molecular and cellular foundations to develop therapies for human disease at the University of Cambridge where I will pursue a PhD in Pharmacology while working with Dr. David Bulmer. Dr. Bulmer is investigating the mechanisms of hypersensitivity in gastrointestinal disease. Gastrointestinal disease is a common disorder that is characterized by diarrhea and abdominal pain and is a leading cause of child morbidity and mortality worldwide. Because of this, it is imperative to better understand the mechanisms of this disease to develop effective analgesics for the management of pain. It is my goal to apply my medical research skills in investigating and preventing diseases to improve healthcare standards and give people from disadvantaged communities a fair chance to fight against disease.

Previous Education

Arizona State University

Following the completion of my MPhil in African Studies (Peterhouse, 2012) I established a private consulting firm (B. Bianchi Consulting) that specializes in post-crisis, security sector reform, and democratic governance. I am putting into use my nearly ten years of experience with African issues to the service of electoral, gender and youth, economic development, and human rights projects by IGOs and NGOs such as the European Union, the World Bank, and France terre d'asile. I have also taught courses on African history and on the geopolitics of conflict in Africa for institutions of higher learning and governmental bureaus. I am presently seeking new opportunities for helping develop strong democratic structures and economic opportunities in Africa, for Africans. I hope to be able to continue my collaboration with IGOs, NGOs, and national governments to this end. It is also my wish to expand my area of expertise to the Southern Cone of Africa, and South America.

As an interdisciplinary scholar of race, gender and family in African Diaspora experience, I am interested in ecosystems of well-being and the interpersonal impacts of trauma and chronic insecurity. My current book project takes couple relationships as a site for revealing how adversity impacts emotional attachment and the vital role of interpersonal connections in building resilience.
I am a native of Akron, Ohio and an alumna of MIT (BS - Urban Studies & Planning, BS - Writing & Humanistic Studies, 2002). At Cambridge I continued research I began in Paris, France as a US Fulbright Grantee examining the influence of increasing racialization of national identity/Frenchness from the perspective of first generation French blacks. I completed a PhD in sociology at Harvard examining attachment and emotion work among Black couples. I am also co-authoring a book with my AADHum colleagues on how a Black feminist ethic of care and intentionality was essential to developing a leading Black Digital Humanities Initiative.

Previous Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
cole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales

I see quality statistics and the use of them in decision-making as paramount to enabling governments to make wide-reaching, positive changes to people's lives. My goals are to improve the translation of data analysis into policy, and to inspire future generations to use their quantitative skills to benefit our global community.

Previous Education

The University of Adelaide Honours Degree of Bachelor of Mathematical and Computer Sciences (Statistics) 2008

For the past eight years I worked at the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi), an independent think tank based in Berlin. From 2011-2014, I served as GPPi’s associate director heading the programs on humanitarian action and innovation in development. I conducted field research in Haiti, DRC, CAR, Uganda and Turkey. At Cambridge, I will focus on state power and the politics of offshore finance. Offshore financial centres, or tax havens, are at the core of social inequality within and across countries. They help the wealthy elite to avoid taxes, shifting the burden of paying for public goods to lower income classes. Global tax evasion can only be addressed if countries collaborate internationally because of the near-complete integration of financial markets into one single global market. Studying the regulation of tax havens, I hope to make a contribution to more tax justice and a more stable financial system.

Pradipta Biswas is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing of Indian Institute of Science. His research focuses on user modelling and multimodal human-machine interaction for aviation and automotive environments and for assistive technology. Earlier, he was a Senior Research Associate at Engineering Department, Research Fellow at Wolfson College and Research Associate at Trinity Hall of University of Cambridge. He completed PhD in Computer Science at the Rainbow Group of University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory and Trinity College in 2010 and was awarded a Gates-Cambridge Scholarship in 2006. He undertook a first degree in Information Technology at the University of Kalyani and a master degree at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He conducts a course on Human Computer Interaction at Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, guest lecture at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and was a vice chairman of ITU-T Focus Group on Smart TV.

At heart, I’m a runner who finds the time to study theoretical physics: although in reality, it’s often the other way around. Growing up in the sun, sand and bush of Perth, Western Australia, I uncovered a passion for science – which took me across the country to the Australian National University in Canberra. I lived at Bruce Hall, and helping the community there survive our building being demolished and rebuilt instilled in me a love of working with people. At the same time, my studies fostered an excitement for uncovering a theory of quantum gravity; but it became apparent I’d have to travel overseas to fulfil that dream. Thus, I came to Cambridge to complete the Part III Maths, and prepare myself for a PhD here. In my PhD, I’ll be studying and proposing thought experiments examining quantum gravity, to inform how we build theories in future. I ultimately want to combine my passions for people and physics as an educator, and take ideas about quantum gravity to places (like Australia) where the field is still very small. Being a Gates Scholar will allow me to learn from other scholars how to make my impact as an educator felt not just in Australia, but all over the world.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge Mathematics 2022
Australian National University Physics 2020

Alongside my undergraduate study of archaeology and the ancient Mediterranean world at the George Washington University, I developed an intense interest in the complexities of cultural heritage. Heritage is an immensely powerful tool in creating feelings of belonging. Simultaneously, our heritage can also be used for exclusionary purposes: to justify violence and silence minority voices. Through the MPhil in Heritage Studies at Cambridge, I intend to further my understanding of how tangible and intangible heritage shapes identity, memory, and culture in the present. Namely, I will continue research into the root causes of continued looting, theft, and destruction of cultural heritage in West Africa. My ongoing work will foreground local voices to inform meaningful heritage management in the region.

Previous Education

George Washington University Archaeology; Classical Studies 2023

I was born to a Quebecois family in Montreal and grew up in English speaking Halifax, Canada. There I completed a BA in History of Science and Technology at the University of King's College. Though I was a humanities student I spent much of my undergraduate working in laboratories, learning and reflecting on the experimental methods of scientists. Stepping between different research cultures gave me a fascination for the different ways in which we can study the natural world. More than ethical advice, I believe that philosophy and history can contribute genuine methodological insights for the sciences. During my MPhil in History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine at Cambridge I hope to examine the ways in which model organisms are shaped by their experimental contexts. What kind of generalizations can be drawn from organisms that change constantly and situationally? I believe that answering this question calls for interdisciplinary and inter-cultural approaches, and I hope to continue my collaborations with scientists during my time at Cambridge. I am honoured to join the Gates community, where I will be able to take part in scholarly conversations that reach across disciplines and nationalities.

Previous Education

University of King's College History of Science&Technology 2020

I am from Jamaica, and previously studied law in the Caribbean and at Cambridge. With the Gates scholarship I hope to pursue research leading to the award of a PhD in International Law. More specifically, I will look at the implementation of international human rights through regional mechanisms in the Americas and Africa. Subsequently, I hope to mix an academic career with international law practice.