I am interested in patterns of threat and extinction due to habitat loss, and the use of quantitative methods to aid in both understanding past and present patterns of species' losses and making future conservation decisions. Particularly I am interested in revisiting the Species Area Relationship and its use in predicting species' extinctions.
My research at Cambridge focuses on the production of hydrogen for fuel cells and carbon capture and storage. I was born in Austria and attended Gymnasium before returning to the US for high school. I graduated from Princeton University in 2006 with a degree in Chemical Engineering.
I was born and raised in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia. I completed my Bachelors studies at the University of Rochester in the USA, exploring a diverse set of disciplines including philosophy, neuroscience, economics, and political science. I rapidly developed a deep interest in brain sciences, fueled by my philosophical fascination about the human mind. I continued my scientific training as a research assistant at Georgetown University, followed by a Research Master’s studies at the Donders Institute in the Netherlands. I gradually realized that Neuroscience offers not only unprecedented tools to answer deepest philosophical puzzles about cognition, but also an opportunity to use the discovered mechanistic understanding of the brain to design effective strategies for improving human abilities. I realized that at the heart of every scientific and intellectual advancement, at the foundation of human progress lies the human ability to learn, create, and solve problems, enabled by the fascinatingly complex underlying neuro-computational processes. With the help of the amazing research community at Cambridge, I aim to uncover the inner workings of the human brain as it learns and remembers, in an effort to contribute to the development of science-based, effective strategies for improving knowledge acquisition and idea generation. I hope that such insights can be used to improve human learning in healthy adults as well as those with neurodegenerative diseases.
University of Rochester
Georgetown University
Radboud University Nijmegen
I completed my MPhil in 2012 and my PhD in 2016, as a two-time Gates recipient. My thesis, entitled "Medicine and Society in Anglo-Saxon England: The Social and Practical Context of Bald’s Leechbook and the Lacnunga," focused on socio-economic factors affecting access to medical knowledge and treatment in early medieval England. A secondary focus of my research was Old English terminology for precious stones, particularly garnet.
Since receiving my PhD, I have been working professionally as an editor of an architecture magazine. I am also the founding editor of For All the Fish, a new online magazine on sustainable food.
University of Cambridge MPhil, Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic 2011
University of Toronto BA (Hons) Medieval Studies, English 2007
https://www.forallthefish.com
http://cambridge.academia.edu/JuliaBolotina
I grew up in Corbin, Kentucky and attended the University of Kentucky as a biology major and Lewis Honors College member. The impact of cancer on my family and community, which faces the highest incidence and mortality of cancer in the United States, inspired me to seek a career as a physician scientist dedicated to improving cancer care. Throughout my undergraduate career, I conducted research investigating the role of glycogen and glycogen metabolism in glioblastoma and Ewing’s Sarcoma and was awarded the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Astronaut Scholarship for this work. I was selected for MD Anderson’s CPRIT-CURE program where I explored ways to enhance radiotherapy of patients with head and neck cancers by utilizing imaging and bioinformatics. I am elated to pursue a MPhil in Medical Science in the department of Oncology at Cambridge. My project is centered on the hypothesis that competition between oesophageal adenocarcinoma and its precursor lesion, Barrett’s oesophagus, may determine the sensitivity to treatment and affect prognosis. It is a privilege and honor to be selected for the Gates Cambridge Scholarship and work alongside a cohort of inspiring individuals.
University of Kentucky Biology 2023
I recently completed a double major in Political Science and Sociology at Columbia University, and am excited to continue my studies at Cambridge, where I will study for an MPhil in Modern Society and Global Transformations. In particular, my MPhil dissertation will examine one or more of the world's seemingly intractable conflicts, using sociology of globalization as a lens. Certain contemporary conflicts appear insoluble due to their profound complexity and extremely high group animosities. However, even these conflicts are influenced, for better or worse, by recent worldwide societal trends. By researching the nature of this influence, I hope to gain insights that will allow me to work toward peaceful resolution of major world conflicts.
I study security, researching both technical aspects of cryptography and the human element in large systems like the Internet. I've enjoyed learning how security can go wrong, from lock-picking to the difficult economics of privacy online. I'm passionate about using computers as an empowering technology, enabling privacy, free speech, free access to information, and transparency in public authorities. My thesis work focused on the increasing difficulty of establishing identity in an interconnected world of many digital devices. Since my time in Cambridge I've worked at Google and the Electronic Frontier Foundation and been a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University and Princeton University.
I am currently an assistant professor of History at the University of Michigan.
Born in Montréal, Québec and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, I have always been aware of language and its role in identity. As an undergraduate at Swarthmore College studying Biology and Linguistics, I became interested in endangered languages and their conservation. My research and senior thesis explored the endangered Papua New Guinean language of Yokoim, and my study of Arabic led me to love Semitic languages. Language is one of the most complex systems humans have created, and the sheer diversity of language is testimony to humanity’s creativity and the breadth of perspectives on our world. As a repository of knowledge, history, and memory, it is also a key component of personal and communal identity. Yet about half of the world’s ~7,000 languages are classified as endangered, at risk of dying out and becoming lost to their communities and the wider world. I am grateful to the Gates Cambridge Trust for the opportunity to pursue an M.Phil. in Linguistics at Cambridge. There, I aim to build a foundation for my future work in the classroom and field with these languages and their speaking communities.
Interests: Bread baking, origami, knitting, economics, political satire, kayaking, running half-marathons, traveling
Swarthmore College
Growing up, I had an uneasy feeling that some day I would have to make a choice between being a musician and a scientist. So far, that day has not yet arrived. As a music technology major at Northwestern University, I researched connections between video games and musical aptitude, and developed software to model spatial reverberation for multichannel audio systems. At Cambridge I studied for an MPhil in Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory, building acoustical models of Renaissance Venetian Churches. I later did my PhD in the Music Technology program at New York University, and I'm now a postdoctoral researcher in the 3D Audio and Applied Acoustics Laboratory at Princeton University.
I believe in a future where youngsters are the champions of extraordinary change in conserving landscapes, wildlife, and human livelihoods. My late father would take my mother, siblings, and me on adventures in nature during my childhood years. These curiosity-filled escapades led to the incidental discovery of a camel spider unknown to science at age 17. At that moment, I realized my career would involve wildlife conservation and the promotion of sustainable human livelihoods. My passion landed me a full scholarship to Catawba College for my Environmental and Sustainability undergrad studies. I secured several National Geographic, Woodspring Trust, and St. Luke's Episcopal Foundation grants to conduct impactful conservation projects in Marsabit and Athi River, Kenya. Earning the prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship will empower me to pursue the MPhil in Conservation Leadership at Cambridge. My ultimate goal is to set up a Wilderness Conservation Centre in northern Kenya. To explore, research, and conserve its unique ecosystems through context-specific community-oriented programs. It will serve as a vital springboard for youth to learn and launch sustainable ventures, thus improving human lives and the natural world.
Catawba College Environment and Sustainability 2021
University of Chicago BA Biological Sciences/Philosophy 2001
I come from Croatia where I finished my previous degrees in Mathematics. So far I have worked on a number of computer science projects in academia and industry dealing with different topics such as combinatorial optimization, numerical simulations, compiler construction, security and semantic web. As a PhD student at Computer Laboratory I am working in the area of software verification trying to find new and improve current techniques for checking correctness of software. I am also actively involved in entrepreneurial activities and am serving as Vice-President for 2010/11 of Cambridge University Entrepreneurs.
The effective transfer of Scientific innovations from research to industry is critical for enhancing human expertise and long-term economic growth. With this Mphil I intend to refine my understanding of the strategic control of technology for enhanced business performance and the public interest. Cambridge is such a wonderful place and an amazing platform for an exchange of ideas. I hope my fellow scholars and I will have a great time experiencing its life and getting to know each other.
Theodora Bowering is an architect, Gates Scholar and PhD Candidate in the Centre for Urban Conflict Research (UCR) at the Department of Architecture. Her doctoral research, ‘Ageing and the city: urban resilience and sociospatial marginalisation of older people in East London’, investigates everyday experiences of ageing within the civic spaces of cities, looking specifically at the London Borough of Newham.
In 2017–18 Theodora convened the CRASSH seminar series, ‘Ageing and the city: everyday experiences of older people in urban environments’, in collaboration with the Institute for Public Health and Department of Land Economy (www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/programmes/ageing-and-the-city-everyday-experiences-of-older-people-in-urban-environme). She was also a participant in the University of Cambridge ThinkLab project, in collaboration with the RSA, investigating the challenges of housing in the UK. Theodora was the recipient of the 2017 Future Cities PhD Fellowship from the Department of Land Economy and co-editor of the twenty-sixth issue of Scroope, The Cambridge Architecture Journal, on the theme of 'apologia'. She also supervises the BA Tripos (ARB/RIBA Part I) course The Architecture of Housing and BA dissertations, as well as acting as a critic for BA, MAUD and MAUS presentations. Theodora co-convened the UCR’s PhD and Early-Career Workshop ‘Doing Architectural Research: Socio-political Perspectives on Theories, Methodologies and Praxis’ in Cambridge in June 2017. Additionally, she has run Petite Pecha Kucha events for graduate students within the department.
Before beginning her PhD, Theodora completed the Masters in Architecture and Urban Studies in the Department of Architecture at Cambridge. Theodora’s professional architectural education was at the University of Sydney, where she gained a Bachelor of Architecture (Hons I) and Bachelor of Science (Architecture). She has also been a registered architect in NSW, Australia (RAIA) since 2013.
Theodora has worked for over six years in architectural practice, in Sydney (Richard Leplastrier Architect and Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects) and London (Skene Catling de la Peña Architects), on residential, heritage and public buildings, from concept and detail design through to contract administration and office management. Additionally, she has four years’ design and communications studio tutoring and lecturing experience in the Department of Architecture at the University of Sydney. Theodora has also been a volunteer and continuing instructor for the Taoist Tai Chi Society (www.taoist.org) for over fifteen years, and leads a weekly class at Newnham College.
University of Sydney
University of Cambridge