Directory

I have graduated with a starred First in History from Cambridge in 2013 and continued to read for an MPhil in Political Thought and Intellectual History winning the Quentin Skinner Prize in 2014. Subsequently, I pursued a PhD under the supervision of Professor Christopher Clark on Roland Freisler, one of the most notorious jurists of the 'Third Reich'.

My academic interest lies with the role of political ideologies in history with a focus on Germany in the 19th and 20th century. In particular, I am intrigued by the interaction of ideas and arguments with the political, social and economic forces of 'real' history. My Bachelor thesis focussed on Ludwig Woltmann, who attempted to fuse neo-Kantianism, Marxism and Darwinism before developing a racialist view of history that became one of the corner stones of national socialist ideology. For my MPhil, I went back to Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Buchholz, examining their differing visions of a future German nation in a post-Napoleonic European order. In particular, I looked at their understanding of reason of state, which served as a bridge between law, philosophy and practical politics.

For my PhD, I wrote a biography of Roland Freisler, who was a state secretary in the Reich Ministry of Justice before becoming the president of the so-called 'People's Court' in 1942. Although he is mostly know for his role in persecuting opponents of the regime, his involvement with National Socialism stretches back to the early days of the Weimar Republic when he defended party members in court and became involved in local politics. By examining Freisler's roles as a legal theorist, ideologue, bureaucrat, judge and political activist, I sought to contribute to an intellectual history of the 'Third Reich' whilst shedding new light on the image of Freisler in public memory. I have presented my research at academic conferences as well as the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection, the Topography of Terror Berlin, and the NS-Dokumentationszentrum Köln.

I have been a Prize Research Student at the Centre for History and Economics in 2013/14 and received scholarships from the Stiftung der deutschen Wirtschaft, the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) as well as a CHESS Allen, Meek and Reed award from the Cambridge Trust and a Gates Cambridge scholarship. I have also represented Cambridge twice in the annual esports varsity tournament against Oxford. From December 2018 to September 2019, I was a guest researcher (JEV-Stipendiat) at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt.

Since October 2019, I work as a policy advisor on research and education at the Liberal Institute of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Berlin.

Previous Education

Trinity College, University of Cambridge Political Thought and Intellecutal History 2014
Trinity College, University of Cambridge History 2013

Links

https://www.freiheit.org/buero/liberales-institut

Claire K. Clement writes at the intersection of philosophy, religion, science, and economics. Her interests include what humans will do for meaning after robots take our jobs, and which new religions might emerge from our multicultural ferment. Her current project is the book "Human Believing: God, Science, and Philosophy Across Cultures", which explores the big questions of life with a broad comparative and thematic approach, integrating ideas as wide-ranging as Mormon afterlife, quantum theory, Jedi beliefs, personality types, and the major world religions.
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Her research at Cambridge focused on the spiritual, economic and social history of the late-medieval English Syon Abbey. (Title: “Processing Piety and the Materiality of Spiritual Mission at Syon Abbey, 1415-1539”). She further pursued her interests in the intersection of social sciences and religion by completing a master’s of urban planning with a focus on economic development, GIS, historic preservation, and women's mobility.

Out of a wide range of interests, I always return to Classical Studies as a unique mirror for better understanding today’s world. After obtaining a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Latin and Greek at Ghent University, Belgium, the Flemish Government granted me funding (a ‘Fayat’ scholarship) to pursue an MPhil in Classics at Cambridge. I am intrigued by late antiquity – a period of lasting religious, political and sociocultural change. In my PhD, I aim to study two late antique authors, a church leader (Gregory of Nazianzus) and a professor of rhetoric (Ausonius of Bordeaux). With the generous help of Gates Cambridge, I hope to understand how these authors presented themselves in relation to the different places where they lived. Studying place, self-presentation, and migration in late antiquity will hopefully help to nuance our understanding of identity, not only in the past but also today.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge Classics 2023
Universiteit Gent (University of Ghent) Linguistics and Literature 2022
Universiteit Gent (University of Ghent) Latin - Greek 2021

Throughout my undergraduate education, my research has focused mainly on experimental 20th-century poetry of the American and Russian traditions. Recently I have examined Language Poetry and Russian Formalism, Ezra Pound and structuralism, and Vladimir Mayakovsky's Bolshevik Futurism. In the American MPhil program I will explore how two modernist American writers' formal innovations were influenced by the British and European cultures they immigrated to, while focusing on their contrary but related approaches to poetic language. This study will compare Ezra Pound's vorticism and "The Cantos" with Gertrude Stein's attention to the autonomous value of the word in "Tender Buttons." My career goals are to enter academia and continue to work to support cross-cultural academic dialogue.

Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) is one of several clean energy technologies that must be deployed globally to minimise the effects of climate change on future generations. However, the CCUS methods currently in use are inefficient and uneconomical due to the difficulty of selectively capturing carbon dioxide from mixtures of gases. I plan on addressing this by investigating the mechanism of action for new electrochemical CCUS systems. Understanding these reactions will mean we can build cheaper, more effective, and longer-lasting CCUS systems. My interest in zero-emissions technology stems from my time working on freight and electric vehicle policy as a public servant in the Australian federal government, which taught me the importance and difficulty of decarbonisation from a technological, economic and political perspective.

My academic research at the Computer Laboratory in Cambridge focused on the application of formal methods for mechanised proof to the domain of computer security generally and privacy and anonymity specifically.

I grew up catching praying mantises and damselflies in rural Kentucky. As an undergraduate at Centre College, I majored in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; I spent my summers taking care of sick children at the Center for Courageous Kids and doing research in organic chemistry and neuroscience. I matriculated directly to the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and completed my first three years of medical school. I then moved to Janelia Research Campus as a HHMI Medical Research Fellow; there I studied the neural and genetic bases of behavior. As a PhD student in Zoology, I will study adaptive behavior. All animals integrate information about past experience into future decisions; this is the basis of learning and memory. I am proposing to write a specific memory and read the memory trace in the brain. I will use the fruit fly as a model organism. By understanding mechanisms of memory storage, we can begin to investigate changes in memory formation in disease; this may allow us to develop rational therapies for disorders of memory formation, including autism and Alzheimer’s disease. After completing my PhD, I will return to finish my last year of medical school and pursue a career as a child neurologist and neuroscientist, using my lab to better understand the patients I see in clinic.

Previous Education

Centre College

Born in Cape Town to a South African father and a German mother, I have always been deeply aware of how culture affects the way in which we think and value knowledge. Throughout my undergraduate degree at the University of Cape Town I was drawn to exploring the ways knowledge is deeply implicated in relations of power, where certain knowledges and ways of knowing are privileged over others and the impact this has on addressing questions of inequality and social injustice. As a Commonwealth Scholar at doing an MPhil in Intellectual History at Cambridge, I explored the ways in which Scottish Enlightenment thought impacted upon narratives around slavery and emancipation in nineteenth century South Africa. After completing my Cambridge MPhil, I decided to shift my focus from history to anthropology, with the desire to be involved in more engaged academia. For my MSc in Social Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam I conducted three months fieldwork in Malawi studying Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres in rural villages and the ways in which these centres are embedded in asymmetrical power/knowledge relations which privilege outside and ‘expert’ knowledge above that of the community. During my PhD at Cambridge I hope to further explore the ways in which unequal power/knowledge constructions are embedded in ‘development’ focused literacy projects, by examining the import of children’s fantasy and fairytale literature into rural communities and the asymmetrical relations of power within which these are embedded.

Previous Education

University of Amsterdam
University of Cambridge

Growing up in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, USA, I loved to tinker. Naturally, my predilection for building (and at times, unintended destruction!) steered me towards exploring the field of engineering. I recently graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in Chemical-Biological Engineering and have aspirations to explore the interface of biology and engineering as a future physician-scientist. At Cambridge, I will pursue an MPhil in Computational Biology to gain formal training in applied mathematics so that I can better apply mathematical modeling and computational methods to tissue engineering research. After my year in the UK, I will enroll in the MD-PhD Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to train as a physician-scientist. Ultimately, as a future physician-scientist, I aspire to develop innovative therapeutic technologies and translate them from "bench to bedside" and in doing so, help make regenerative medicine a reality.

Previous Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology S.B. Chemical-Biological Engineering 2012

I'm a third-year medical student at Johns Hopkins, and ever since I started medical school I have been fascinated by ethical and anthropological aspects of medicine. In particular, I am interested in the transformation of medical students into doctors, changing historical concepts of the "professional code" of medicine, and how physicians and medical students can use narrative essay to reflect on emotionally intense or disturbing experiences. I am also curious about what happens to doctors who break the professional code, and about aspects of existing medical culture that may paradoxically make it more difficult for physicians to behave ethically. While at Cambridge I look forward to exploring these issues through the Department of Social Anthropology.

Ben Cole matriculated at Cambridge as a Gates Scholar in 2011, where he was a member of Trinity College and served as the Communications Chair for the Gates Scholars Council. Before Cambridge, Ben was a Technology Pioneer for Google's emerging markets team and a data scientist at Facebook. Since graduating, Ben has worked as a product manager and product strategy consultant at a wide range of organizations including Google.org, Kickstarter, and a number of startups. In his spare time, Ben has enjoyed acting at the Metropolitan Opera of NY, serving as a driver in President Obama's motorcade, and hosting events in NYC and the Bay Area.

Previous Education

Cornell University

Links

https://linkedin.com/in/bencole
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/ben-cole

After completing my MPhil at Cambridge, I received a PhD in history from Yale University. My dissertation, "Empire on Edge: Land, Law and Capital in Gilded Age Basra," looked at the accumulation strategies of elites in a changing legal and geopolitical context between the Ottoman, Qajar, and British Indian states. I have since returned to Cambridge for a JRF at Jesus College (2020-2023) where I am working on a project on the transnational history of concessions, and on turning my dissertation into a book manuscript.

As an undergraduate researcher at UNC at Chapel Hill and NIH, I gained a broad understanding of biological mechanisms underlying disease, especially cancer. My experiences while designing an undergraduate course, research work, and clinical volunteering sparked my interest in genomics and precision medicine. My coursework and clinical experiences during my master's in genomic medicine at Imperial College London demonstrated to me the potential of precision medicine to revolutionize healthcare. As an MD/PhD student, I will study the genomic landscape of paragangliomas, pheochromocytomas, and gastrointestinal stromal tumors at the NIH and the University of Cambridge. Through metabolic, epigenetic, and functional genomic studies, I hope to elucidate the biological underpinnings of these devastating neuroendocrine tumors, leading to advancements in prognostication and treatment. Outside the lab, I will continue my involvement in scientific outreach/education and refugee health. I am honored to be part of the multidisciplinary and collaborative Gates Cambridge community seeking to improve global society. As a future physician-scientist, I aspire to translate scientific advancements into precision medicine diagnostics and therapeutics.

Previous Education

University of North Carolina Medicine 2026
Imperial College London (University of London) Genomic Medicine 2017
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Biology 2016

I completed my PhD in History in 2019, and after two years working as a Departmental Lecturer in Modern European History at Christ Church, University of Oxford, was the Mark Kaplanoff Research Fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge. I am now Associate Professor in Modern European History at the University of Bergen. My first monograph appeared with Oxford University Press in 2022 (see https://global.oup.com/academic/product/prussia-in-the-historical-culture-of-the-german-democratic-republic-9780192865908?lang=en&cc=no)

At the University of Cambridge, I will pursue a MPhil in International Relations. My research will focus on the African Union (AU) 6th Region Diaspora Initiative which seeks to foster economic and socio-political relationships between Africa and the African Diaspora. More specifically, I am interested in the potentialities and limitations of invoking Pan Africanism as a means of achieving regional development throughout the African continent. In addition, I seek to understand the ways in which regional institutions such as the AU promote or challenge normative assumptions of the nation-state. I am confident that Cambridge University will provide me with the necessary academic mentorship and theoretical framework to pursue meaningful research. As a Gates Scholar and Cambridge graduate, I hope to provide consultation on regional and developmental projects within Africa and the Caribbean.

In 2012, I completed a dual degree program at the University of Michigan in chemistry and piano performance. While at Michigan, I led research in the preparation of nanostructured semiconductor films for solar energy conversion applications. I have also worked on projects developing new processing methods for semiconductor purification. Since graduating, I have worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (USA), conducting research on the role of atmospheric aerosols in climate change. I am currently working on my PhD in Materials Science and Metallurgy at Cambridge with a focus on electron microscopy and spectroscopy. By visualizing materials and their properties at length scales approaching individual atoms my work serves to understand fundamental properties of light-matter interactions. These fundamental relationships underpin advances in a variety of technology areas from chemical and biological sensing to information technology applications. Throughout my career, I hope to lead research aimed at understanding the chemistry and physics of materials in climate science and renewable energy.

In hopes of performing meaningful research on the efficient and responsible use of energy, I am pursuing a PhD in engineering with a focus on the optimization of fuel injectors in gas turbine engines. The ultimate goal is the minimization of the environmental impact of gas turbine combustion and the maximization of fuel efficiency. More specifically, I am analyzing liquid fuel injectors for aero-engine applications. This optimization problem is complicated by a number of design trade-offs and the computationally expensive simulations required for an accurate assessment of a given design's performance. Combining empirical and analytical tools with computational fluid dynamics conducted at varying degrees of spatial and temporal resolution, I aspire to develop an automated, multi-fidelity approach for fuel injector design. Furthermore, this project will provide some insight into the influence of injector design parameters on overall combustor performance.