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Valentina Ndolo

  • Alumni
  • Kenya
  • 2018 PhD Veterinary Medicine
  • Churchill College
Valentina Ndolo

Valentina Ndolo

  • Alumni
  • Kenya
  • 2018 PhD Veterinary Medicine
  • Churchill College

I developed a passion for infectious disease research whilst undertaking my BSc in Biochemistry at the University of Nairobi. Upon graduating in 2013, I did an internship at the KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme alongside the malaria immunology group. I later joined the US Army Medical Research Unit where I did another internship with the influenza surveillance group. In July 2015, I was offered a Commonwealth Scholarship by DFID to pursue an MSc in International Health & Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford. Consequently, I worked with the malaria vaccine research group at the Jenner Institute for my thesis project. During my MSc, I founded the STEMing Africa Initiative ( https://stemingafricainitiative.wordpress.com/ ) to advocate for the active inclusion of women in STEM by supporting talented female graduates in STEM to secure scholarships for advanced degrees at leading universities worldwide. The modest awards from the Western Union, UNESCO, the Forum for African Women Educationalists, and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) helped me to spearhead this program. I also got an opportunity to enhance my leadership skills whilst participating as a fellow in the 2018 Mandela Washington Fellowship, a flagship program started by former president Barack Obama to connect young African leaders with leaders from the United States. For my Ph.D., I applied machine learning to model the distribution and determinants of anthrax disease risk across Uganda and Kenya. My work will accelerate anthrax disease elimination by providing guidance for targeted disease prevention and surveillance.

Previous Education

University Of Nairobi
University of Oxford

Afrodita Nikolova

  • Alumni
  • North Macedonia
  • 2014 PhD Education
  • Wolfson College
Afrodita Nikolova

Afrodita Nikolova

  • Alumni
  • North Macedonia
  • 2014 PhD Education
  • Wolfson College

As ethnically Aromanian poet I am interested in the "personal" and the "social" in poetry, what Carolyn Forché called "poetry of witness". This shaped my work as English lecturer as well as creative writing programme director and workshop facilitator with youth in diverse learning settings. When my poetry pamphlet "Omaynina" earned the national award "Lesnovski Dzvona", I co-founded the literary magazine "Sh". I felt I was thrown into the Macedonian literary scene with the joy and caution of a child jumping on a trampoline. Doing journalism, educational projects for the NGO "Izlez", I was awarded a scholarship for a Balkan ethnic tensions seminar, Sarajevo. During the MPhil project I explored readers' aesthetic and cultural responses to Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and the role of literature in social justice. Expanding my knowledge in the field of the arts practices in the criminal justice system, for my PhD I am working on the arts-based design, delivery and evaluation of a new participatory Spoken Word Poetry Programme (SWPP) for self-development through creative engagement and performance together with young people, the staff and artists/educators in a Macedonian prison.

Mahlaqua Noor

  • Scholar
  • Pakistan
  • 2019 PhD Medicine
  • Hughes Hall
Mahlaqua Noor

Mahlaqua Noor

  • Scholar
  • Pakistan
  • 2019 PhD Medicine
  • Hughes Hall

Previous Education

Jacobs University Biochemistry and Cell Biology 2019

Timothy O'Connor

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2007 PhD Zoology
  • Peterhouse
Timothy O'Connor

Timothy O'Connor

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2007 PhD Zoology
  • Peterhouse

Seoyoung Park

  • Scholar
  • Korea, Republic of
  • 2022 PhD Medical Sciences @ MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit
  • Hughes Hall
Seoyoung Park

Seoyoung Park

  • Scholar
  • Korea, Republic of
  • 2022 PhD Medical Sciences @ MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit
  • Hughes Hall

During my undergraduate studies in biomedical sciences at University College London, I was first introduced to the brain’s immune cell, microglia, where I learnt about the multifaceted nature of these cells in the physiological and pathological condition. Fascinated by the interactions that occur between the brain and the immune system, I went onto researching into the role of peripheral B lymphocytes in Parkinson’s disease for my master’s project at Cambridge university. Since graduating, I have worked as a business development manager at a neuroscience-focused biotech company, working with leading CNS pharmaceutical and biotech companies. This has allowed me to appreciate the enormous gaps that exist in our knowledge in neurodegenerative diseases and has, in turn, brought me back into research. Coming back to the academia and specifically Cambridge university as a PhD student, I plan to research into the relationship between mitochondrial dysfunction and inflammation to understand disease mechanisms underlying Parkinson’s disease. It is a great honour to be able to join the Gates Cambridge community, which I believe will enormously enhance both my PhD and Cambridge experience.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge Translational Biomed Research 2019
University College London Biomedical Science 2018

Andrew Parker

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2014 Mphil Public Policy
  • King's College
Andrew Parker

Andrew Parker

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2014 Mphil Public Policy
  • King's College

From a young age, my mother taught me the importance of exercising the right to vote. Years later, as a volunteer on Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, I saw the challenges of voting firsthand: confusing registration forms, long lines, and malfunctioning voting machines, among others. I studied election reform efforts as a Political Science major at Stanford University and continued to focus on issues of civic engagement and political participation through positions at The White House Office of Public Engagement and on the 2012 Obama campaign. I completed an MPhil in Public Policy at Cambridge as a 2014 Gates Scholar, which deepened my understanding of policymaking and allowed me to explore the intersection of government, technology and public policy. I am currently drawing on these skills in my new role at the American Civil Liberties Union, and I will be continuing my education later this year as I enroll at Yale Law School.

Katherine Pickard

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2011 MPhil Social & Developmental Psychology
  • Newnham College
Katherine Pickard

Katherine Pickard

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2011 MPhil Social & Developmental Psychology
  • Newnham College

This year at the University of Cambridge, I will be receiving an MPhil in Social and Developmental Psychology under the supervision of Dr. Claire Hughes. During my time in Cambridge I will be working on Dr. Hughes' "Toddlers and Up" project, a longitudinal study that examines young children's learning profiles. By looking at young children with high levels of inhibition and social anxiety, I hope to compare their performance on executive function tasks to their more outgoing peers.

Lauren Power

  • Alumni
  • Australia
  • 2015 MPhil Multi-Disciplinary Gender St
  • Clare Hall
Lauren Power

Lauren Power

  • Alumni
  • Australia
  • 2015 MPhil Multi-Disciplinary Gender St
  • Clare Hall

I completed my MPhil in Multidisciplinary Gender Studies at the Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies in 2015/16. My research focused on the ways young women use online technologies to engage in feminist thought and action and explored how these online practices are affecting feminist political progress.

I now work in Australia as Senior Social Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister, the Hon Anthony Albanese MP.

Prior to coming to Cambridge I worked as a Social Policy Advisor at the Australian Treasury, specialising in schools policy, early childhood education and care and parental leave policy.

Previously I worked as research manager for the global food and water security program run at Australian public policy think tank Future Directions International.

Previous Education

University of Western Australia

Neha Rahman

  • Alumni
  • Canada
  • 2020 MPhil Classics
  • King's College
Neha Rahman

Neha Rahman

  • Alumni
  • Canada
  • 2020 MPhil Classics
  • King's College

Though I was born in Bangladesh, my family moved to Canada when I was three years old. I grew up using stories to puzzle out my place in the world. My love of classics began in my high school Latin class, and in completing my BA in Classics and History at McGill, I gained greater critical perspectives and practical skills. I took part in an archaeological dig in Southern Italy, and adapted and directed a play from Ancient Greek into English. I learned that studying the ancient world could be done in an outward facing way and learned to share these stories with a wider community. I also worked with youth engagement in politics confronting the barriers to democratic participation for young people. To find solutions, I turned to the ancient world and became interested in the lives of adolescents in a world where their roles in society were much less clearly defined, and yet parallel to our own in their liminality. In classics, I seek to understand the voices that have gone unheard for too long- youth, women, the working classes. All these intersecting identities have deep ties to my own story. I believe that better understanding the ancient world might give us the critical vocabulary to solve problems in our modern age as well.

Previous Education

McGill University Classics 2020

Sanjiv Ranchod

  • Scholar
  • South Africa
  • 2022 CPGS Computer Science
  • St John's College
Sanjiv Ranchod

Sanjiv Ranchod

  • Scholar
  • South Africa
  • 2022 CPGS Computer Science
  • St John's College

During my BSc in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town, I developed a passion for Category Theory and Mathematics Education. The former presented to me a framework of insight into the mathematical questions I had encountered through my interest in the field, while the latter expressed a means for me to contribute to the upliftment of young, interested students in South Africa. In continuing to my MSc in Mathematics I explored these interests further and, in particular, studied internal categorical structures, while gaining teaching experience at the university. The opportunity to read a PhD at Cambridge supported by a Gates Cambridge Scholarship allows me to further explore my interests in Internal Category Theory, Categorical Logic and Internal Languages and to make meaningful contributions to these fields. I hope to engage with a cohort of educationally interested students to further my growth as a teacher. It is my intension to help grow the Category Theory – and general mathematical – community in my home county as well as help improve the state of mathematics education at its tertiary institutions.

Previous Education

University of Cape Town Mathematics 2022
University of Cape Town Mathematics 2020
University of Cape Town Maths and Applied Maths 2019

Natalie Rebeyev

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2015 PhD Medical Science @ CIMR
  • Hughes Hall
Natalie Rebeyev

Natalie Rebeyev

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2015 PhD Medical Science @ CIMR
  • Hughes Hall

At Syracuse University, as a dual Biology and Judaic Studies major, I developed a deep-seated curiosity about human biology and disease alongside my study of the humanities. My early exposure to research led me to secure both on-campus and international research opportunities. I conducted pharmacological research with faculty at Upstate Medical University and cancer research at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. I will complete my undergraduate thesis on the role of a protein (erlin2) on intracellular protein degradation of the IP3 receptor. At Cambridge, I will be working with Dr. Paul Lehner to identify novel cellular receptors manipulated by viruses, which teaches us about viral pathogenesis. This work is of great importance because it has the capacity to lead to novel therapeutic approaches by targeting newly identified receptors. The lab uses proteomic approaches alongside genetic screening in human haploid cells. Further, silencing a retrovirus and looking at the viral transport/repressor complex is used to discover functions for previously identified and unidentified genes. In the future, I plan on attending medical school to inform my research as a physician-scientist and become a viral oncologist. Moreover, as a Bukharian woman, and as the first person to attend college from both sides of my family, I look forward to sharing my experiences and supporting the academic and professional goals of young women from traditional, immigrant communities worldwide.

Previous Education

Syracuse University

Tomer Reiter

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2015 MASt Pure Mathematics
  • Gonville and Caius College
Tomer Reiter

Tomer Reiter

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2015 MASt Pure Mathematics
  • Gonville and Caius College

Born in Israel, I moved to the United States when I was four years old and grew up mainly in Boston. Attending the Program in Mathematics for Young Scientists (PROMYS) in Boston was a pivotal point in my life. PROMYS is a six week summer program where high school students learn mathematics, specifically number theory. Here I found my passion for number theory and mathematics in general. Later summers I returned as a counselor and eventually served as head counselor. Through this I realized how excited I am to mentor and teach mathematics. At Carnegie Mellon University, I completed a major in mathematics and minor in computer science, further fueling my interest in mathematics and mentoring. In addition, I joined Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish fraternity, and took on various leadership positions that made me grow closer to my Israeli heritage and cultural identity. I also took courses in Japanese language and culture to learn more about cultural differences and to further contextualize my identity. I am excited to attend Cambridge and take Part III of the Mathematical Tripos where I will delve into number theory, an area I am deeply interested in. After my time at Cambridge, I plan to attend a Ph.D. program in the United States and eventually become a professor. All the while, I hope to make contributions through teaching and mentoring just as PROMYS made an impact on me.

Previous Education

Carnegie Mellon University

Caroline Robertson

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2009 PhD Psychiatry
  • Lucy Cavendish College
Caroline Robertson

Caroline Robertson

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2009 PhD Psychiatry
  • Lucy Cavendish College

Caroline is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College. Her research focuses on cognitive neuroscience approaches to memory, perception, and neurodiversity.

Caroline received her BA from Columbia University in 2009, where she studied neuroscience and philosophy. She received her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2013, as a Gates-Cambridge Scholar and NIH-Cambridge Fellow. At Cambridge, Caroline worked in the labs of Dr. Chris Baker at the National Institutes of Health and Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen at Cambridge. She performed her postdoctoral research in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT with Dr. Nancy Kanwisher, where she held a junior fellowship in the Harvard Society of Fellows. Caroline was named a fellow of the American Academy of Achievement (2014), a NARSAD Young Investigator of the Brain and Behavior Foundation (2015), and a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (2016).

Previous Education

Columbia University

Jee Rubin

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2018 PhD Education
  • Jesus College
Jee Rubin

Jee Rubin

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2018 PhD Education
  • Jesus College

My undergraduate studies in opera performance led me to Jordan, where I served as a Fulbright fellow researching music education for young Syrians. I went on to live in the region for another five years, primarily working as an education consultant to humanitarian aid organizations. While this experience solidified my interest in education, it also raised difficult questions about the potential for aid efforts to harm those they aim to help.My doctoral research on the geopolitics of higher education in Syria was born out of these experiences and concerns. The project examines how foreign actors within the conflict—western aid donors among them—have come to shape universities throughout the country. It is my hope that research of this kind might inform more just practices of solidarity and support for Syrian academic communities.

Mayumi Sato

  • Scholar
  • Canada, Japan
  • 2021 PhD Sociology
  • Trinity Hall
Mayumi Sato

Mayumi Sato

  • Scholar
  • Canada, Japan
  • 2021 PhD Sociology
  • Trinity Hall

Growing up in Asia and North America, I have always felt contradicting experiences of identity, one that oscillates between the desire to belong in a new country and the desire to remember my home roots, while ultimately finding myself not fully accepted in either. From a young age, I used my personal experiences as an opportunity to make sense of the world, and to unpack the societies I moved through. Between academic degrees, I worked on issues of reforestation, gender and social equity in forest landscapes, and land resettlement and reparations in Asia, North America, and Europe. My studies and work has allowed me to develop my current research interests, which focus on the intersection between environment and social justice. My research is centered on practices of environmental justice and resistance, which serve as broader social struggles for freedom and land recognition and reclamation. Through my research, I hope to share public-facing knowledge and flatten the power hierarchies between how "research" is credited and produced, and to translate scholarship in ways that are accessible and useful within and outside the academy.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge Sociology 2020
McGill University Honours Geography 2017

Megan Sim

  • Alumni
  • Singapore
  • 2009 MPhil Social and Developmental Psychology
    2010 PhD Social and Developmental Psychology
  • Sidney Sussex College
Megan Sim

Megan Sim

  • Alumni
  • Singapore
  • 2009 MPhil Social and Developmental Psychology
    2010 PhD Social and Developmental Psychology
  • Sidney Sussex College

My academic research and career has been driven by my passion for using evidence to improve the lives of others – particularly children and people who are disadvantaged and vulnerable. My PhD research examined what actually happens when juveniles are interviewed by police officers; in particular, I examined the interrogation techniques used by police officers, and the effectiveness of these techniques at eliciting different responses from the young suspects.
Since completing my doctorate in 2014 I have used my research skills to design, lead and conduct evaluations, including of UK and European public policy initiatives at RAND Europe in Cambridge, UK, and more recently of international development projects at the Centre for Evaluation and Development in Mannheim, Germany.

Emma Soneson

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2018 PhD Psychiatry
  • Clare College
Emma Soneson

Emma Soneson

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2018 PhD Psychiatry
  • Clare College

Emma graduated with a PhD in Psychiatry in 2023. Her doctoral research focused on how public health approaches can improve the identification of and response to mental health difficulties in children and young people. Throughout her time at Cambridge, Emma's research, leadership, and impact were recognised with several awards, including the Bill Gates Sr. Prize, the Clinical School's Milo Keynes Prize for Outstanding Dissertation, the Vice Chancellor's Awards for Research Impact and Engagement, and the NIHR Mental Health Research Incubator's Prize for 'Collaborative Involvement of Patients and the Public'.

Emma is currently a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford as well as a Fulford Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College. Her varied research programme covers many aspects of child and adolescent mental health, including psychiatric epidemiology, intervention development and evaluation, implementation, and methodological research. The ultimate goal of her work is to reduce the incidence, prevalence, and impact of child and adolescent mental health difficulties, with a particular focus on better supporting children and adolescents from marginalised and minoritised groups.

Previous Education

Yale University
University of Cambridge

Links

https://www.psych.ox.ac.uk/team/emma-soneson
https://twitter.com/emma_soneson

Parvathi Subbiah

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2016 PhD Latin American Studies
  • Clare College
Parvathi Subbiah

Parvathi Subbiah

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2016 PhD Latin American Studies
  • Clare College

Previous Education

University of Southern California
University of Cambridge