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My studies will focus on the political dimensions of education policy as it affects English language learners both in the United Kingdom and in the United States. I hope that my time at Cambridge enables me to develop a deeper understanding of the pressing social problems presented by and inextricably linked to education. Specifically, I am eager to develop the research abilities and critical capacities that are required to make a substantive contribution to the life prospects of today’s students.

Previous Education

Stanford University 2007

Losing my mother shortly before starting law school deepened my empathy for the suffering of others. Paired with a strong sense of justice, it led me to discover my calling in defending human rights. After qualifying as a lawyer in Spain, I pursued an LLM in Public International Law and International Human Rights Law at the London School of Economics, where I began to study the most heinous of international crimes: genocide. I couldn’t stop asking myself: how could states fail to do more to prevent such a devastating crime, one that wounds not only the targeted group but humanity as a whole? Through my PhD research at Cambridge, I aim to enhance state compliance with the duty to prevent genocide by developing a set of criteria for allocating individual state obligations under this collective duty. I also seek to critically assess the Genocide Convention and the role of the UN Security Council, with the goal of helping realise their unfulfilled potential as instruments of genocide prevention and as pillars of the international rule of law. I am deeply honoured to pursue this journey as a member of the Gates Cambridge community, among individuals who, like me, are committed to leaving the world better than they found it.

Previous Education

London School of Economics Master of Laws (Public International Law) 2024
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Master of Access to Legal Practice 2021
Universidad Pontificia Comillas Law and Business Administration 2019

As a historian, I thrive on imagining the past and asking the question ‘why?’. Growing up in New Zealand surrounded by many stunning landscapes, I have developed a strong interest in how people think about the natural world. These interests were inspired and refined by the opportunity to complete a BA in History and Psychology, and a BA(Hons) and MA in History, at the University of Auckland. At Cambridge University, I will be researching intersections between the environment and diplomacy, with a particular focus on interoceanic canals. I am interested in treating international diplomatic treaties as texts which must be considered within their environmental contexts, rather than being mentally sequestered within the confines of diplomatic meeting halls. My previous research has focussed on public perceptions of international diplomacy, notably neutrality and the 1899 Hague Peace Conference, in the late nineteenth century. I have become fascinated by the challenge of trying to understand how people have grappled with ideas about their world and how it functions. Environmental challenges are particularly salient in the present, and I believe that an integral part of working towards international cooperation in addressing environmental challenges is developing historical understanding of how the inherently international challenges presented by the environment have been confronted in diplomatic contexts.

Previous Education

University of Auckland

In this year at Cambridge I will be undertaking the CASM in pure mathematics. I will study in depth many subjects of Geometry and Topology. Afterwards, I intend to study a PhD at Cambridge related to one of these topics or both. Pure mathematics is the basis of many sciences nowadays and I will be glad to contribute to the development of new theories and methods to tackle the problems that we will face in the future.

The MPhil in Environmental Policy I received while on the Gates Fellowship changed the course of my life. Not only was it an incredible educational and cultural experience, it reawakened in me a deep passion for environmental protection, sustainability, and, most importantly, realistic strategies to strive towards these ideals. My life is now dedicated to finding and implementing feasible strategies for implementing environmental technology, especially carbon capture and storage. My goal is to ensure that during this transition period where renewable energy supplies are being phased in, the unavoidable use of fossil fuels is pursued in a much more environmentally-conscious way. In short, I want to clean up the energy industry – from the inside out.

Previous Education

Oklahoma State University BS Chemical Engineering 2005

Having first encountered Latin and Greek in the only secondary school in Iceland which still teaches ancient languages, I read for a double bachelor degree in Latin and Greek at the University of Iceland and spent a year at the University of Glasgow as an exchange student. In my MPhil in Classics at Cambridge I wrote a thesis on language contact in Ovid᾽s exile poetry. With my PhD project, I will continue to work on Latin sociolinguistics. Part of my project seeks to address the linguistic prejudice faced by people who speak a non-standard variety of language. This sort of prejudice is not new since it is also well attested in antiquity. By creating a fuller picture of social variation in Latin, I aim to highlight the fact that variation in language has always existed. I will do so by focusing on the connection between the linguistic behaviour and the social status of various Roman authors, concentrating on Latin epistolography. I am deeply honoured and grateful to do this research with the support of the Gates Cambridge Trust.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge Classics 2022
University of Iceland Latin 2021
University of Iceland Greek 2021

I grew up in NYC and completed my undergraduate studies in philosophy at Princeton University. As an editor for the Daily Princetonian, I covered the #MeToo movement as stories unfolded on campus. Through my reporting, research, and friendships, I realized the #MeToo problem was widely shared. Motivated to close what scholars call a “justice gap” between the rates of rape victimization and conviction, I wrote my undergraduate thesis on the nature of consent, the appropriateness of blame and punishment, and the requirements of justice in cases of rape. My ambition is to help change the way we think about and respond to interpersonal wrongdoing to ensure that everyone’s right to bodily autonomy is respected. During my MPhil, I plan to study topics in ethics, philosophy of law, and feminist philosophy, and to continue my learning in meta-ethics, value theory, and social philosophy. In my free time, I enjoy freestyle rapping, powerlifting, and filmmaking. I am grateful to be joining the ranks of Gates Cambridge scholars.

Previous Education

Princeton University Philosophy 2020

Professor of the Learning Sciences, University of Cambridge
https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/people/staff/hofmann/

Governing Body Fellow, Hughes Hall, Cambridge
https://www.hughes.cam.ac.uk/about/our-people/seniors-members/riikka-hofmann/

Co-founder of Cambridge University Medical Education Group CUMEG
https://www.cumeg.cam.ac.uk/

Expert advisor on UK Government's Cross-Whitehall Trials and Evaluation Advice Panel
https://whatworks.blog.gov.uk/2019/10/29/using-academics-to-advise-government-on-trial-design/

Steering group member of Digital Education Futures:
https://www.deficambridge.org/people/riikka-hofmann/

Lay summaries of my research findings:

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT AND ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE:

Overcoming barriers that stop new leaders from delivering change:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/926862/NLC-thinkpiece-Developing-Leaders-HOFMANN.pdf

Supporting leadership development and organisational change (podcast):
https://www.cumeg.cam.ac.uk/podcast/improvements-through-research-and-evaluation/

SIMULATION-BASED LEARNING FOR DOCTORS AND TEACHERS:

Mixed-reality simulation-based learning for doctors with holographic patients:
https://news.educ.cam.ac.uk/hologram-patients-time-best-inventions-2022

AI-supported simulation-based learning for teachers:
https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/trainee-teachers-made-sharper-assessments-about-learning-difficulties-after-receiving-feedback-from

BETTER EVIDENCE GENERATION AND EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE:

ED-TALK Evidence & Dialogue toolkit for schools:
http://edtoolkit.educ.cam.ac.uk/

Using evidence in policy making (video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzUzAx7wtlM

Improving the reporting of complex interventions to improve the quality of evidence in evaluations:
https://news.educ.cam.ac.uk/230322-journals-update-guidelines

Evaluating simulation-based learning interventions in medical settings:
https://news.educ.cam.ac.uk/evaluation-simulation-based-training-significant-gaps

Improving evidence-based professional development to promote better physical health interventions in schools:
https://news.educ.cam.ac.uk/poor-professional-development-physical-health-primary-schools

Links

https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/people/staff/hofmann

I hope to use research to help create an international financial system that meets the needs of the world’s most vulnerable. I studied Economics and Political Philosophy as an undergraduate, focusing on the post-colonial economic development of African states. While researching corruption in the Kinshasa traffic police, studying abroad in Senegal, and working at a school in Zambia, I came to see how policy made in New York, Washington D.C., and London shaped the financial realities of people far away, often with tragic consequences. Now, as a policy researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, I study structural inequalities in the international financial system. I use my research to develop and advocate for policies that restructure international finance to support rather than suppress the development aspirations of post-colonial states.

Previous Education

University of Chicago Economics/Political Theory

I am curious about the ways people understand and create discourses around environmental issues. As an undergraduate—first at Brandeis University, then, after transferring, at Harvard University—I studied environmental challenges and became immersed in the expansive discipline of Science and Technology Studies. Simultaneously, I developed a love of journalism, particularly radio storytelling. In the years following my undergraduate education, I cultivated both of these interests. I worked with Schmidt Futures to understand and support effective philanthropic approaches at the intersection of science, technology, and society. I also worked as a reporter at KOTO, the community radio station in Telluride, CO. Reporting for a small mountain region during a global pandemic gave me firsthand appreciation for the ways journalism can foster community. But I’m also uncertain how journalism can help humanity face larger environmental challenges. As climate change alters our world, I believe unifying and clarifying storytelling will be all the more essential. I hope to use this MPhil in Anthropocene Studies to examine the roles journalists can and should play in helping people understand and respond to climate change.

Previous Education

Harvard University Env. Science & Public Policy 2019
Brandeis University Environmental Studies 2017

Previous Education

University of Sydney

Isaac Holeman is a designer-researcher striving for global health equity. As a social scientist and co-founder of the social enterprise Medic Mobile, his work is about seeing complex health systems from the perspective of the poor and marginalized and responding pragmatically. Medic Mobile received a Skoll award in 2014, and Isaac has been featured twice in Forbes Magazine as one of the top 30 social entrepreneurs under the age of 30. He is an active speaker and consultant, and his writing has been featured in outlets such as National Geographic, the Oregonian and the Harvard Global Health Review. He continues to practice design at Medic Mobile, while pursuing research projects as a fellow of the University of Edinburgh’s Global Health Academy and as a Gates Cambridge Scholar in innovation, strategy and organization.

Born and raised in Houston, Texas, I am a mixed-race scholar who has always been interested in narratives of identity. I attended the University of Houston where I completed a BA in English Literature with minors in Classics and Creative Work. In various research projects at the University of Houston and Harvard, I have explored why and how Black artists engage with antiquity to reimagine new art forms and critique the historical whiteness of these spaces from the inside. At Cambridge, I am pursuing an MPhil in Classics to study at the intersection of Black feminist theory and classical reception to better understand antiquity’s influence on modern conceptions of race, literature, and culture. I will explore how contemporary Black women writers across the African diaspora engage with Homer’s Odyssey to grapple with complex paradoxes of home and movement throughout histories of oppression. Moreover, I integrate the study of Homer's texts themselves to demonstrate how a Black feminist framework can reveal new interpretations of the Odyssey. I am incredibly honored to join the Gates Cambridge community and excited to learn from and collaborate with scholars invested in building a better future.

Previous Education

Harvard University Classics
University of Houston English Literature

I grew up in New York, and went on to do my undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Materials Science & Engineering, with minors in Physics and Leadership Studies. During that time, I performed research at a variety of institutions, including Syracuse University, the University of California in Santa Barbara, and MIT. I came to Cambridge in 2005 on a Winston Churchill Scholarship to complete my MPhil in Semiconductor Physics working with Prof Sir Colin Humphreys in the Materials department. I stayed on to pursue my PhD in Prof Humphreys’ research group working on gallium nitride semiconductor light emitting devices, funded by a Gates Cambridge scholarship. This work plays an important role in the solution to the global energy crisis (and makes me feel like I'm saving the world). I have also been active in applying my scientific background toward other social enterprises such as policy-making, having started an energy policy think-tank in 2009, and business.

Links

http://absciences.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanhollander
http://twitter.com/hollanderjon

My PhD focuses on the reception of classical atomist philosophy in eighteenth-century France and its deployment in philosophical debates concerning the nature of politics and citizenship. I am particularly interested in the impact of Epicurean and Lucretian themes on the political thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.