Directory

Neuroimaging is a topic I first came across during introductory courses as an undergrad in psychology, and the fascination with it remained in the back of my head for a long time. However, only during my Master’s degree in systems neuroscience I realized that it could be not just a research method, but a research subject of its own. Luckily, I could conduct the research for my Master’s thesis at the Laboratoire de recherche en neuroimagerie in Lausanne, where imaging neuroscientists shared their expertise and love for MRI with me. During my PhD in Clinical Neurosciences with Dr. Tim Rittman I will use multimodal MRI, post-mortem data and machine learning techniques to examine how tau pathology (a hallmark of various neurodegenerative diseases) progresses in the brain. Apart from science, I care about science communication and mental health advocacy. Therefore I’m a board member of two nonprofit organisations—the German Brain Bee (a neuroscience competition and outreach programme for highschool students) and Blaupause Gesundheit (an organisation for mental health awareness/support for health professionals). I’m honored to be joining this community and hope I can contribute to it as well as meet wonderful like-minded people.

Previous Education

Philipps-Universität Marburg Systems Neuroscience 2022
Bayerische-Julius-Maximillians-Universitat Wurzber Psychology 2019
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen Economics 2015

Links

https://www.rittman.uk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tatjana-schmidt-793a78b0

I am currently conducting research in the Institute of Criminology for my PhD. Specifically, I am investigating the causes of wrongful convictions. My current project involves a quantitative examination of the causes of wrongful convictions in a sample of cases investigated by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, a public body tasked with overseeing claims of miscarriages of justice in the UK. After completion of my PhD, I hope to continue empirically evaluating legal practices in order to promote more effective criminal justice law and policy reform.

Previous Education

University of Konstanz
École Normale Supérieure de Paris
University of Cambridge

With the generous support of the Gates Cambridge Trust, I am starting my PhD in the History and Philosophy of Science. My doctoral research concentrates on mid-twentieth-century wet brain collections and material cultures in neurosciences, psychiatry, and neurology, illustrating the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of brain-related research; the transnational context of locally produced knowledge; and the consequences of spatial arrangements of basic research, clinical practice, and industry-led studies. It aims to provide a desperately needed historical perspective for mid-twentieth-century medical collections in neuropathology, many of which have been dissolved, archived as museum collections, or re-investigated with contemporary methods in the last two decades.

Growing up during Sri Lanka’s civil war and contending with its ethnic conflict as the child of parents from different ethnic minorities, I quickly became familiar with history’s capacity to both exacerbate and/or transform conflict and violence. Working in English and Cultural Studies, my research since the end of the civil war in 2009 has explored how history can be used to challenge received frameworks of analysis and transform the worlds we inhabit into more just, equitable, democratic, and peaceful spaces for all communities in Sri Lanka.In 2016 I completed my MA as a Fulbright scholar at Kansas State University, USA. My dissertation focused on how shifts in definitions of ethnic categories shaped Sri Lanka’s first experience of national-level democracy at the turn of the 20th Century. As a graduate student in History at Cambridge, I build on this work to consider how conflicts over registers of time have shaped articulations of ethnic identifications after the British took control of the entire Island in 1815.

Previous Education

Kansas State University English-Cultural Studies 2016
University of Kelaniya English 2009

Originally from Germany, I look forward to experiencing Cambridge, both as an intellectual challenge as well as a cultural experience. The Scholarship gives me the exceptional opportunity to further my knowledge in Economics- a subject that attracts me since it helps to explain what forms world events. Afterwards, I hope to complete a PhD and work for an international organisation. In my free time, I hope to have a great time getting to know all my fellow scholars.

Communication is something all animals have in common; language, however, is a uniquely human capacity. Without language, scientific discoveries, inventions, and even mathematical advances would have been impossible. My fascination with language as a uniquely human trait and the basis for all sophisticated thought has continued throughout my education. After completing a B.A. in English Linguistics and Latin at the University of Regensburg, Germany, with a year abroad at the University of York, UK, I came to Cambridge for an MPhil in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, where I began research on language processing. As a consultant for R&D Funding and Innovation Advisory, I was given the opportunity to apply my linguistic knowledge to assist companies in successfully gaining funding for their innovative and sustainable ideas. In my PhD project I wish to further investigate complex word processing to build more reliable models of our understanding of language. By combining theoretical and experimental methods from Linguistics, Psychology, and Neuroscience, I aim to give some new insight into the psychological and biological reality of linguistic rules and symbols in the brain. In future, I hope that the findings of my research will help to unravel the influencing factors of human thought and understanding as well as lead to practical applications in a variety of contexts such as teaching and learning, text optimization, and language disorders.

Previous Education

Universitat Regensburg
University of Cambridge

I first got a glimpse of developmental research during an internship in Heidelberg in Year 11. I was immediately drawn to its medical potential, and since then joined several labs in the field throughout my undergraduate degree at Cambridge. I am especially fascinated by questions of cell fate, which have immense medical implications. I believe that by understanding how cells make decisions and manipulating them we will be able to address a myriad of medical challenges, ranging from developmental failure to ageing. I strive to be part of this medical revolution, which I hope will improve the lives of countless people. As a biochemist by training, I’m particularly interested in the molecular machines behind these cell fate decisions. During my PhD, I will investigate how an abnormal number of chromosomes (aneuploidy) affects different tissues in the early embryo, and why some tissues tolerate this while others do not. Most pregnancies fail within the first two weeks of development, and aneuploidy is a major contributor to developmental failure, so my research will address a fundamental question of human development, as well as inform improvements in fertility treatment to avoid unsuccessful pregnancies and embryo wastage.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge Natural Sciences (Biological) 2022

I am an affective neuroscientist and psychologist at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (ICN). My research is aimed at identifying new targets for interventions that prevent and treat mental health problems.
During my PhD and postdoc at the University of Cambridge, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit I focused on how cognitive abilities interact with emotions to give rise to good or poor mental health, especially depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. Since joining the ICN Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Group as a Sir Henry Wellcome fellow I have extended my work to understand how these processes develop across the lifespan.

I am a researcher working at the intersection of AI ethics, democratic theory, and social epistemology. During my undergraduate studies at the University of Melbourne, my work focused on the epistemic foundations of democracy – particularly how expertise is recognised, contested, and legitimised in an era of information abundance, algorithmic filtering, and political polarisation. While working at the Social Research Centre, I won Australia’s Research Got Talent competition and conducted a mixed-methods research project investigating misinformation susceptibility among Australian men. I am now working with the Museum of Sticks & Stones to translate these findings into targeted media literacy initiatives aimed at strengthening digital resilience in Australia. I am delighted to be commencing an MPhil in Ethics of AI, Data, and Algorithms at the University of Cambridge, where I hope to integrate philosophical analysis with real-world policy challenges related to truth, trust, and algorithms in democratic societies.

Previous Education

University of Melbourne Philosophy 2022
University of Melbourne Philosophy and Politics 2021

Amanda Scott is the Industrial and Environmental Product and Applications Manager at Sievers Instruments by SUEZ. She has a Masters in Chemical Engineering from University of Cambridge in England and a Bachelors of Chemical Engineering from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. For the past three years, her focus has been to develop and support organics monitoring solutions for industrial and environmental markets.

Amanda has been published in multiple trade journals and has presented at various national and international water conferences. Her research experiences include work developing biophotovoltaic devices and biomass gasification using concentrated solar power to generate renewable energy. When she is not working, Amanda enjoys running and is a two-time US Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier.

Previous Education

Vanderbilt University Bachelors of Engineering in Chemical Engineering 2009