Directory

Previous Education

Princeton University Molecular Biology, Applied and Computational Mathematics 2011
University of Oxford Biochemistry 2010

All my life, I've been captivated by the wonders and conundrums of complex diseases. Why do viruses mutate in unpredictable ways? And why would a man mistake his wife for a hat? With a quantitative mind, I longed for mathematical tools I could use to investigate these captivating mysteries and found them in machine learning—dedicated to the discovery of complex computational patterns in a range of applications. At Cambridge, I will have the opportunity to contribute my machine learning background to an ongoing effort to determine the genes involved with pain. Capturing complex relationships among genes and with their environment, machine learning has the potential to discover not just single genes, but how they interact to cause observed symptoms. Ultimately, I hope to pursue an MD/PhD so that as a scientist, I might help further our understanding of complex diseases but as a physician, I might never lose sight of the real patients I’m trying to help.

For as long as I can remember I have been interested in science. In college I majored in chemistry, completing a total synthesis of the natural product ineariifolianone in the lab of Prof. Erik Sorensen for my senior thesis. While I ultimately plan to pursue a PhD and academic career in the sciences, over the last year and a half I have found myself becoming increasingly curious about the process of scientific research and thought – questions such as how we are able to know what we (claim to) know, how competing theories can be tested against each other, and the ways in which scientific research is shaped by the wider society and vice versa. This coming year I will be pursuing those interests by studying the history, philosophy, and sociology of science, technology, and medicine at Cambridge.

I was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica where I navigated two cultures of care. This foundational experience, coupled with the knowledge and understanding gained from research and personal healthcare challenges, has shaped my passion for cultivating high-quality healthcare in the Caribbean. As an undergraduate studying Anthropology and Global Health at Princeton University, I developed an appetite for understanding the health narratives of people and contexts of diseases. During my MPhil in Health, Medicine and Society, I plan to conduct research on maternal health, violence and humanized birthing practices in low resource contexts. I will explore the effects of obstetric violence on maternal and child health and prioritize quality of care for women during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum. I believe that it is essential to center the voices of women in an effort to reimagine birthing possibilities and will take a multidisciplinary approach to my work. I am honored to be joining the Gates Cambridge community and look forward to approaching global health as a collective effort. 

Previous Education

Princeton University Medical Anthropology 2023

Evolutionary science and medicine are becoming increasingly intertwined. Human bodies are not merely a product of our current biology, but also of deep evolutionary history that informs an understanding not only of how they work but why they developed this way. My main interests lie in the evolution of bipedal locomotion and how this relates to the modern human body. At Cambridge, I undertook an M.Phil. in Human Evolutionary Studies within the Division of Biological Anthropology examining evolutionary relationships between bipedality, energetics, encephalization, and cephalopelvic disproportion with the hope of applying the research to the pressing global health issue of maternal morbidity and mortality. I am also very interested in pediatrics and ontogeny, particularly in order to understand how to harness a child's natural growth patterns to treat or prevent skeletal disorders.

Previous Education

Princeton University

Previous Education

Princeton University

Ben is a journalist and writer from Los Angeles. As an undergraduate at Princeton, he used breaks to shadow scientists in Alaska, visiting the largest glaciers in the American Arctic, living off-grid in winter to research permafrost, and walking and packrafting across the Brooks Range to study the boreal forest’s poleward migration. His nonfiction book North to the Future (Grand Central, July 2025) recounts a scientific, philosophical, and attentional journey to understand how one of the fastest-warming corners of the planet is changing. It won the National Outdoor Book Award and was named one of the Ten Best Science Books of 2025 by Smithsonian Magazine. A member of the Explorer's Club, his writing has appeared in the LA Times, National Geographic, Smithsonian, Scientific American, Literary Hub, Washington Post, and other publications. As a PhD candidate in Polar Studies at Cambridge, he plans to research environmental perception under the mentorship of Professor Michael Bravo. In spare time, he runs trails, surfs, and volunteers as an ocean therapist.

Previous Education

Princeton University English 2020
University College London English 2018

Previous Education

Princeton University

Previous Education

Princeton University Philosophy