Directory

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

Born in Sorocaba, Brazil, I grew up understanding that there are a set of cultural barriers for LGBT individuals within the country. Because of that, in my undergraduate studies in Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies and Political Science at Franklin University Switzerland, topics of gender, sexuality and the nation in Latin America moved my academic enquiries. My current MPhil program in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies at the University of Cambridge continues to reflect my interest for these questions, as my dissertation examines how representations of trans and queer aging women in Brazil interact with the country's nation-state paradigm through image, film and text. For my PhD dissertation, I hope to write a comparative analysis between Argentina and Brazil regarding their queer futurity discourse within LGBT assemblies. I aim at mapping the dialogical relations between queerness and liberal notions of progress and the future that took place while the countries moved toward democratic regimes in the 1980s. By doing so, I hope to explore how these notions have contributed to the configuration of the current LGBT assemblies discourse of queer futurity. With my research, I hope to strengthen the tie between theory and activism, as well as collaborate to new developments in the direction of LGBT movements from local to international levels by advancing the debate on the shapes the dialogue of queer futurity takes across cultures.

Previous Education

Franklin University Switzerlan
University of Cambridge

My passion for food and sharing meals with loved ones led me to pursue a BSc in nutrition at Université Laval (Québec City, Canada). During my studies, I worked with various research teams at Centre NUTRISS, where I discovered my interest in dietary public health. I quickly became passionate about researching ways to tackle global public health challenges, such as the rising prevalence of obesity, by creating healthier food environments through policy. My MSc research examined the exposure of children to sugary beverage marketing in six countries with different marketing policy environments. The UK’s upcoming advertising restrictions for less healthy foods on TV and online are seen as global forerunners to improve population health. During my PhD at Cambridge, I will examine changes to marketing strategies following the implementation of the globally novel UK advertising restrictions, which may undermine their public health impact. Findings will help refine UK policy and inform policymakers internationally to develop comprehensive marketing restrictions that can support healthier food environments. I am thrilled to join the vibrant and diverse Gates Cambridge community that shares my vision of leading large-scale change.

Previous Education

Université Laval Nutrition

I was born and brought up in South India. I chose to pursue bioengineering as an undergraduate to study the human body from the perspective of a structure-function relationship defined within a mathematical framework. As part of my Masters in biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins, I worked on developing a polymer based gene delivery therapy for brain tumours and explored ways of making this technology available to patients. As a PhD student in Chemistry at Cambridge, I hope to work on developing biophysical tools to better understand and elucidate the protein chemistry and associated toxicity in neurodegenerative diseases. However, in many parts of the world, there is a large gap between the availability and financial accessibility of life-changing technologies. This has been partly informed by my upbringing in India and my work with non-profits developing public health interventions. As part of the Gates Cambridge community, I aspire to address this gap by working at the intersection of research and social entrepreneurialism to improve the standard of care in low and middle income countries.

Previous Education

University of California Riverside
Johns Hopkins University

I grew up in Davidson, North Carolina and Williams College. As a Gates Scholar, I completed an MPhil in European Literature and Culture, concentrating on Early Modern German. As an undergraduate, I spent the past two summers researching eighteenth-century ceremonial diplomatic encounters between the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires. This research challenged essentialized views of the relationship between the Ottoman Empire and Central Europe and contextualized today’s debates about European culture. At Cambridge, I continued to study the early modern world, focusing on early modern German literary and historical representations of diplomatic friendship.
After my time at Cambridge, I worked in educational publishing in Boston and New York, as well as in public health during the Covid-19 pandemic. I now live in Berlin, Germany, where I work in communications and strategy for Ekin Deligöz, a representative in the German parliament and the Parliamentary State Secretary (deputy minister) of the German Ministry for Families, Seniors, Women, and Youth.

Born in Philadelphia, Amanda Dennis studied modern languages at Princeton and Cambridge Universities before earning her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley and her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was awarded a Whited Fellowship in creative writing. An avid traveler, she has lived in six countries, including Thailand, where she spent a year as a Princeton in Asia fellow. She is the author of the novel, Her Here (2021), and of the book of literary criticism, Beckett and Embodiment (2021), and she has written about literature for the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, and Guernica, as well as for a number of academic books and journals. She is assistant professor of English, Comparative Literature, and Creative Writing at the American University of Paris

Links

https://www.aup.edu/profile/adennis
https://www.amandadennis.net
https://www.facebook.com/amanda.dennis.9638
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-dennis-6a560013

Continuing from my MPhil research in sustainability and urban planning, my current PhD work seeks to determine the direct impact of Urban Agriculture on an individual’s ecological footprint. In the wider world of art and design, theatre sets, the Jesus May Ball, the culinary arts, and my own sketchbook make my days in Cambridge a true joy.

Atticus DeProspo, United States, received his B.S. degree in Industrial & Labor Relations from Cornell University, graduating with honors. He was a member of the Cornell Varsity Men's Soccer Team for four years, helping them win an Ivy League Title. Previously, he worked in Florida and Washington D.C. as an intern for Senator Marco Rubio. Atticus also interned at the Supreme Court of the United States for Justice Sotomayor. Atticus was a member of the inaugural class of the Schwarzman Scholars Program, where he graduated with a Master’s degree in Global Affairs from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Atticus was selected as a Gates-Cambridge Scholar, where he graduated with an M.Phil. degree in Criminology from the University of Cambridge. Atticus received his J.D. from The University of Alabama School of Law. He clerked for Chief Judge L. Scott Coogler on the US District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Atticus also clerked for Judges Peter Hall and Steven Menashi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Currently, he works as an associate at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C.

Previous Education

Cornell University

Links

https://www.wc.com/Attorneys/Atticus-DeProspo
https://www.linkedin.com/in/atticus-deprospo-b27560228?challengeId=AQFmP10UHNL8sAAAAYc4BDztW10bFedB98prwDzszCvj2ncGX4c8O3FGZSNuw

I grew up in Veracruz in Mexico and I completed a BA in Art History and a fully funded MA in Art Studies in Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City where I also worked as an academic assistant. Afterwards, I competed a MSc in Gender, Media and Culture in LSE. As an author and a researcher I focus on the relationship between art, gender and politics. During my MA and MSc I focused on the historical role of Inés Amor and Leonora Carrington. Furthermore, I co authored the books No son micro. Machismos Cotidianos (2020), Mapas Corporales (2023) and authored Inés Amor y los Primeros Años de la Galería de Arte Mexicano (2024), among other publications. My recent work focuses on art, resistance and protest. During my PhD in Latin American Studies, I will explore the role of artistic interventions and public art within the context of Mexican civil society's response to extreme violence over the past decade. My research aims to enhance contemporary art studies by examining artistic expressions beyond traditional galleries or museums, incorporating protest expressions integral to the visual imaginary that significantly influence cultural studies in Latin America.

Previous Education

Universidad Iberoamericana (Iberoamericana Univers Art Studies
London School of Economics & Political Science (Un Gender Studies

Rafael Dernbach is a researcher and writer concerned with the social and medial constructions of futures. Currently, he acts as Director of Emerging Narratives at fischerAppelt advisors. Previously, he was a research associate for Futurium, House of Futures in Berlin. As a Gates Scholar, he received his doctorate for research on anticipatory realism in post-cinematic art at the University of Cambridge in 2018. He held visiting researcher positions at Princeton University and Freie Universität Berlin. He has also teaches media theory and design theory at universities and academies.

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rafael-dernbach-ph-d-10a9161a3
http://www.rafaeldernbach.com
http://twitter.com/rdernbach

My undergraduate research was in the area of transport in polymer membranes. I have worked mostly with nonselective membranes which either facilitate fast mass transfer or act as barriers. In Cambridge, I continued this research by working with Dr. Geoff Moggridge on selective nanoporous films made from block copolymers.

I am currently studying bioengineering with a concentration in cellular and tissue engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago. As an undergraduate student, I have engaged myself in neuroscience and bioengineering research, which has fostered my passion to study ocular pathology in the scope of neuroscience. During my MPhil in Medical Sciences at Cambridge, I will study the aetiology of glaucoma and the mechanisms of cell death, which can provide further insight into developing novel therapeutic options. I am honoured and excited to join the dynamic group of scholars that make up the Gates Cambridge community.

Previous Education

University of Illinois, Chicago

I grew up in Quebec and lived in New Mexico, before studying comparative politics at Harvard and working in China. At the Judge Business School, I researched the psychology of social networks and their impact on leadership, innovation and performance in organizations. I then went on to work as a strategy consultant for Roland Berger and cofounded Fluent.ai, a speech recognition startup.

Links

http://linkedin.com/in/desruisseaux

My experiences studying Medical Anthropology, Global Health, African Studies, and Gender Studies at Princeton expanded my understanding of social inequality and its impact on sexual health around the world. Through my ethnographic projects studying pregnant women during the pandemic and women using doula services, I recognized the lived experiences of women seeking healthcare amid various barriers. The chance to better these women's health options inspires me to continue my studies. After working on health equity in the US, South Africa, Vietnam, and New Zealand, I am eager to begin my MPhil in Health, Medicine, and Society at Cambridge to understand the social factors of health and wellbeing in a new cultural context. In my dissertation research, I will explore access to sexual health education for people with disabilities, both in the Cambridge community and internationally. After my time at Cambridge, I intend to attend medical school and practice as a women’s health physician. I am so honored and humbled to join such an outstanding community and learn from my fellow Gates Cambridge peers.

Previous Education

Princeton University Medical Anthropology 2021

I am very grateful to have received a Gates scholarship to start my PhD research in Social Anthropology this year. I will be preparing for fieldwork next year in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). There I will research the niche in trade between Kinshasa (DRC) and Brazzaville (capital of Republic of Congo) over the Congo River, a niche completely dominated by disabled traders. I am specifically interested in how the traders manage to turn their marginalised social position around in this African border zone. I will be looking into how the niche originated, which survival techniques the disabled use to keep it alive, and what the future of the niche will look like. After my PhD I hope to continue research through the international academic community and to use my findings in development cooperation.

Previous Education

United States Naval Academy Oceanography 2009