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Yee Ling Lok
- Scholar-elect
- Singapore
- 2025 MPhil Master of Philosophy in Health, Medicine, and Society
- Hughes Hall
Yee Ling Lok
- Scholar-elect
- Singapore
- 2025 MPhil Master of Philosophy in Health, Medicine, and Society
- Hughes Hall
My two obsessions are ethnography and queer joy. I am trained in sociology, where I cultivate my imagination of a better world. I seek to advance public health by letting lived experience enrich knowledge production. Amid the myths and moral judgements surrounding suicide, I am curious about how survivors of suicide loss in the queer community make sense of their loss. Suicide prevention research is universally important and I am hopeful that the networks and training that I will get in Cambridge will strengthen collective attempts at fostering health, justice, and dignity for all. Committed to dismantling stigma, I guide my peers in mental health literacy and professional help-seeking, support survivors of sexual violence, and befriend homeless people. The stigmatised communities I have worked with for six years cultivated my ethos of sensitivity and trauma-informed care. Community-building is important to me, I hope to connect with fellow first-generation university students and poetry lovers.
Previous Education
National University of Singapore Sociology
Mike (Mikhail) Martin
- Scholar-elect
- Russian Federation, Georgia
- 2025 PhD History
- Sidney Sussex College
Mike (Mikhail) Martin
- Scholar-elect
- Russian Federation, Georgia
- 2025 PhD History
- Sidney Sussex College
Born and raised on Vasilyevsky Island in Saint Petersburg, Russia, I went to Saint Petersburg State University where I did undergraduate studies in History and was actively involved in student unionism. Being forced into exile for opposing the war in Ukraine, I ended up at Cambridge where I continued my research on Commonwealth federalism. My PhD project, aimed at federalist rhetorical strategies in British settler colonies, deals with various modes of persuasion that different political actors in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa mobilised to incline omnifarious audiences towards the federalist agenda. With a necessary historicist pinch of salt, I still believe that the current federalist rhetoric can trace its intellectual genealogy to much earlier periods. The narratives built around the idea of a federal structure based on common principles shared amongst the polities, were at the centre of political rhetoric in many 'federal moments', not excluding the case I study or the current one in the EU. I daresay that global intellectual history is a fruitful field and rather potent instrument for comprehending political rhetoric of the past and, indeed, offering certain advice to contemporary international actors.
Previous Education
University of Cambridge World History
Marcelo Mesa Costa Lima
- Scholar-elect
- Brazil, Italy
- 2025 PhD Medical Sciences at the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit
- Pembroke College
Marcelo Mesa Costa Lima
- Scholar-elect
- Brazil, Italy
- 2025 PhD Medical Sciences at the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit
- Pembroke College
My passion for the biological world began early in my teenhood. At the University of Sao Paulo (USP), I was enrolled at the interdisciplinary Molecular Sciences BSc Course where I studied the natural and formal sciences within an academically diverse community of undergraduates. I became interested in energy metabolism and the free energy transduction through the mitochondrial respiratory chain by means of the aerobic consumption of nutrients. This mechanism for life to remain out of thermodynamic equilibrium has become my greatest passion. While at USP, I conducted my undergraduate research on two mitochondrial proteins of unknown function in yeast and became part of the USP team for the iGEM competition. Additionally, I promoted university life during two Career Fairs, worked alongside the MIT-Brazil programme in the outreach project “Polymers Of Soccer” and became a teaching assistant for biochemistry. During my PhD in Medical Sciences at the Mitochondrial Biology Unit, I seek to study at the molecular level how the respiratory complex I couples the electron transfer from NADH to ubiquinone with proton pumping across the membrane, generating an electrochemical gradient that powers life.
Previous Education
Universidade de Sao Paulo Molecular Sciences
Sarah Nicholls
- Scholar-elect
- United States, United Kingdom
- 2025 PhD Medical Science at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research
- Darwin College
Sarah Nicholls
- Scholar-elect
- United States, United Kingdom
- 2025 PhD Medical Science at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research
- Darwin College
As an undergraduate in the Honors BSc program in biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology at the University of New Hampshire, I worked as a research assistant in Dr. Matthew MacManes’ evolutionary genomics lab, which sparked my passion for neurogenomics. Further coursework in pathology and cell biology inspired me to join the biomedical sphere to contribute to clinicians’ support of their patients. As a Gates Cambridge Scholar, I am pursuing a PhD in Medical Science under Dr. David Rubinsztein, where I will use a synthetic lethality genome screening to determine the molecular interactions of the protein tau, which is implicated in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative conditions. This work will help make tau-based treatments for AD safer and more effective, which could benefit more than 55 million people suffering from the disease worldwide. As a firm believer in the positive impacts of science communication, I am honored to have the opportunity to work with other Gates Cambridge Scholars to help make research from across all fields more accessible. In my free time, I am also passionate about literature and the performing arts, and I am thrilled to become a member of such a vibrant, interdisciplinary community.
Previous Education
University of New Hampshire Biochemistry
Ifeyinwa Nnakenyi
- Scholar-elect
- Nigeria
- 2025 PhD Clinical Biochemistry
- King's College
Ifeyinwa Nnakenyi
- Scholar-elect
- Nigeria
- 2025 PhD Clinical Biochemistry
- King's College
I am a medical doctor who is passionate about curbing the overwhelming scourge of obesity which contributes significantly to the leading causes of death worldwide, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and certain cancers. Global efforts against those non-communicable diseases are greatly limited without addressing obesity. Having practiced Metabolic Medicine for several years, I realized that evidence-based strategies backed by credible science is key to developing sustainable medical solutions against obesity. I went on to obtain an MSc in Medical Biochemistry, and now I plan to undergo a PhD in Clinical Biochemistry to study the adipose tissue extracellular matrix from various racial populations, including Black African populations to understand the mechanisms that can be targeted for treatment of obesity.I am thrilled to be a Gates Cambridge scholar to enjoy all the opportunities it offers, and excited at the high-level scientific work I will be engaged with during my studies.
Previous Education
University of Lagos MEDICINE AND SURGERY
University of Nigeria MEDICAL BIOCHEMISTRY
Kate O'Brien
- Scholar-elect
- Ireland
- 2025 PhD Plant Sciences
- Jesus College
Kate O'Brien
- Scholar-elect
- Ireland
- 2025 PhD Plant Sciences
- Jesus College
The development of plants possessing greater resilience to pathogen infection is essential in the face of a global climate crisis and food security issues. However, the creation of these plants requires an extensive knowledge of a plants immune system and how it is activated by infection. It is well established that the interplay between the epigenome and transcriptome is critical across biological systems, from humans to plants, and this relationship is one I’ve found immensely interesting throughout my studies. In both my undergraduate and masters studies, I have witnessed first-hand how important analysing both the epigenome and transcriptome is to understanding complex processes from development to the immune system. My PhD would explore the epigenetic and genetic regulation of a plant’s immunological memory, and how we can use this knowledge to engineer plants which are more resistant to pathogen infection.
Previous Education
King's College London (University of London) Molecular Genetics
University of Cambridge Biological Sciences (Genetics)
Nicole Occidental
- Scholar-elect
- United States
- 2025 PhD Medical Science at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit
- St John's College
Nicole Occidental
- Scholar-elect
- United States
- 2025 PhD Medical Science at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit
- St John's College
I completed my undergrad in Behavioral Neuroscience at Northeastern University and my Master’s as a Fulbright grantee in Cognitive Neuroscience at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. I am currently an MD/PhD student at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. During my academic journey, I have researched topics ranging from exercise’s effects on cognition to the neural mechanisms underlying social behaviors to quantifying inter-subject and inter-session fMRI variability. Inspired by the children I now help treat, I aim to build on my past research and clinical experiences by pursuing a PhD in Medical Science at Cambridge’s MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. There, I will investigate the relationship between electrophysiological findings, clinical phenotypes, and connectivity profiles underlying neurodevelopmental disorders linked to synaptic vesicle cycling genes. My goal is to become a physician-scientist who bridges international neuroscience research and pediatric care, translating research into therapies that improve the lives of children with neurodevelopmental disorders. I am honored and excited to work with my fellow Gates Cambridge scholars to create meaningful, global change in our respective fields.
Previous Education
Northeastern University Behavioral Neuroscience
Maastricht University Cognitive Neuroscience
UofA for Medical Sciences Medicine
Erixberto Olivencia Alvarez
- Scholar-elect
- United States, Puerto Rico
- 2025 MPhil Biological Sciences
- Darwin College
Erixberto Olivencia Alvarez
- Scholar-elect
- United States, Puerto Rico
- 2025 MPhil Biological Sciences
- Darwin College
Erixberto is an agronomist and scientist from Arecibo, Puerto Rico. As a kid growing up in the rural areas of the island, he was always surrounded by animals and crops—an environment that played a crucial role in shaping his interests. Being the eldest of three siblings, he became deeply fascinated by the process of human development, especially how individuals go from a single cell to a complex multicellular organism shaped by genes, culture, and external factors. This fascination led him to join the Placental Cell Biology Group at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, where he studied the role of the autophagy pathway in placental development and pregnancy maintenance using animal models. In addition, he explored how environmental stressors—such as chemicals and physical stress—can disrupt placental function and impact embryo development. Now, as he pursues an MPhil in Embryogenesis and Reproductive Biology, he aims to delve deeper into the mechanisms of embryonic development, with the goal of becoming a physician-scientist studying how prenatal stressors—like heat stress, hormone dysregulation, and chemical or viral exposures—shape long-term health.
Previous Education
University of Puerto Rico Animal Science
Jeremiah Oloyede
- Scholar-elect
- Nigeria
- 2025 MPhil Industrial Systems, Manufacture, and Management
- Lucy Cavendish College
Jeremiah Oloyede
- Scholar-elect
- Nigeria
- 2025 MPhil Industrial Systems, Manufacture, and Management
- Lucy Cavendish College
Growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, infrequent electricity was my birthright. I had never confronted the status quo until I witnessed an entire production line crumble during an internship because of the same problem—unreliable electricity. Immediately, I began tinkering: If centralizing electricity production failed us, how about decentralization?During my undergraduate studies, I identified optimal zones for integrating renewable technologies into West Africa’s grid. My research is now a framework for siting and co-locating renewable energy sources across the West African power pool. My professional stint at Space in Africa deepened my practical expertise in solar technology projects, environmental satellite missions, and microgrid strategies for rural electrification. But I’m far from done.As an MPhil candidate in ISMM at Cambridge, I look forward to an Africa where renewable energy is produced in-house and distributed to all Africans. I aim to achieve this through innovative policies and engineering frameworks that bring cost-effective energy solutions to the continent. Becoming a Gates Cambridge Scholar will balance my technicalities with the leadership to concretize this.Fun fact: classical music is my second source of energy
Previous Education
Covenant University Mechanical Engineering
Margherita Parimbelli
- Scholar-elect
- Italy
- 2025 PhD Physics
- Christ's College
Margherita Parimbelli
- Scholar-elect
- Italy
- 2025 PhD Physics
- Christ's College
Up until joining university, my interests were primarily in Applied Mathematics. However, during my Bachelor’s in Engineering Mathematics at the University of Bristol, I encountered various physics subjects, from fluid dynamics to electromagnetism, revealing the deep connection between mathematics, physics, and computation. I soon realised my desire to contribute to physics, inspired by its reliance on computational methods to solve complex problems. This passion led me to pursue an MPhil in Scientific Computing at the University of Cambridge, where I study topics like magnetohydrodynamics and numerical methods, deepening my appreciation for the interplay between physics and computation. A PhD in Physics is the natural next step, allowing me to bridge my computational skills with theoretical physics and contribute to advancements in areas like nuclear fusion. During this PhD, I plan to explore the interactions between the plasma and the wall of the tokamak reactor. The goal is to generate state of the art numerical simulations, to explore the causes and consequences of these interactions. I’m excited to join the Gates Cambridge community, where we can share and learn from each other’s different interests and perspectives.
Previous Education
University of Bristol Engineering Mathematics
University of Cambridge Scientific Computing
Noam Zion Perl Treves
- Scholar-elect
- France, Israel
- 2025 PhD Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
- Christ's College
Noam Zion Perl Treves
- Scholar-elect
- France, Israel
- 2025 PhD Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
- Christ's College
Noam grew up in Israel and earned his B.A. from Sciences Po Paris in 2023, where his final dissertation examined the impact of colonisation on Jewish-Muslim relations among Maghrebi communities in France. In 2024, he completed an MPhil in Muslim-Jewish Relations at the University of Cambridge, focusing on how Yemeni Jews negotiated their Arabicized heritage after immigrating to the Holy Land. He has interned and worked with organizations fostering interfaith coexistence, including EcoPeace Middle East, the Woolf Institute, and the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. His PhD explores the lived experiences of rural Yemeni Jews—an under-researched community shaped by tribality, dispersion, and layered identities. Drawing on an endangered archive of over 1,200 oral testimonies, the project aims to reconstruct hyperlocal Jewish-Muslim relations in Yemen and deepen our understanding of intergroup cohesion in decentralised settings. Noam is also a classical tenor and a member of Christ’s College Chapel Choir.
Previous Education
Sciences PO, Institut d'etudes politiques de Paris Bachelor of Arts
University of Cambridge Middle Eastern Studies
Shin Zert Phua
- Scholar-elect
- Malaysia
- 2025 MPhil Master of Philosophy in Human-Inspired Artificial Intelligence
- Fitzwilliam College
Shin Zert Phua
- Scholar-elect
- Malaysia
- 2025 MPhil Master of Philosophy in Human-Inspired Artificial Intelligence
- Fitzwilliam College
I came from Ipoh, a small mining town in Malaysia. My father passed away from lung cancer having never smoked in his entire life. His passing motivated me to explore whether certain diseases are caused by urban environmental factors or bad genetics. My experience of delivering food to the single-living, less-abled elderlies during COVID-19 made me realise that many people in Singapore faced similar health difficulties too. This series of events made me question if we could change the way we live, and perform preventive measures to address factors affecting our health outcomes. At the University of Cambridge, I will pursue the MPhil in Human-inspired Artificial Intelligence. My research will create the foundational tools to describe the relationships between urban elements and humans and provide the data infrastructure to investigate causal inference between urban exposures and health outcomes. With the Gates-Cambridge scholarship, I now have the opportunity to make an impact on public health and create a way where we all can live a healthy and prosperous life.
Previous Education
Nanyang Technological University Mechanical Engineering
Alicja Podgorski
- Scholar-elect
- Canada
- 2025 PhD Medical Science at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit
- St John's College
Alicja Podgorski
- Scholar-elect
- Canada
- 2025 PhD Medical Science at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit
- St John's College
I am a trauma therapist and researcher from Toronto, Canada, committed to improving mental health care for underserved and vulnerable populations. I have supported individuals navigating some of the most painful and complex chapters of their lives, including those affected by trauma, loss, and adversity. I hold an MSc in Clinical Psychology from Leiden University, and at Cambridge, my PhD research will focus on developing and evaluating a trauma intervention for very young children with PTSD—a population for whom no clinical guidelines currently exist. By creating scalable, evidence-based treatments, my work aims to close a critical gap in early childhood mental health and make effective care more globally accessible. I believe research can be a force for healing, equity, and systemic change, and I am honoured to join the Gates Cambridge community of scholars working to improve lives through inquiry, compassion, and service.
Previous Education
York University Psychology
Rijksuniversiteit Leiden (Leiden Univ) Psychology
Emma Powers
- Scholar-elect
- United States
- 2025 MPhil Medical Science at the Department of Oncology
- Churchill College
Emma Powers
- Scholar-elect
- United States
- 2025 MPhil Medical Science at the Department of Oncology
- Churchill College
Originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, I majored in Biochemistry with a minor in Data Science at the University of Notre Dame. During my undergraduate research, I became interested in identifying and developing novel cancer therapeutics to improve patient outcomes and quality of life. At the University of Cambridge, I will complete an MPhil in Medical Sciences for Oncology in Dr. Rebecca Fitzgerald’s group at the Early Cancer Institute. My project will use patient-derived organoids to identify key genes and explore potential therapeutic avenues in hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC). This research will provide a further understanding of the key molecular pathways driving this cancer to provide a better idea of how to slow or prevent the progression of HDGC. Engaging in this research, I aspire to contribute significantly to improving the prevention of HDGC and advance my scientific skill set throughout my predoctoral experience. I am honored to enter the esteemed Gates Cambridge Community and look forward to beginning my work.
Previous Education
University of Notre Dame Biochemistry
Asa Quasney Wardat
- Scholar-elect
- United States
- 2025 MPhil Architecture and Urban Studies
- Magdalene College
Asa Quasney Wardat
- Scholar-elect
- United States
- 2025 MPhil Architecture and Urban Studies
- Magdalene College
I am a researcher with interests in disaster management, sustainable architecture, accessible design, and disability justice. I completed my undergraduate education at Williams College (class of 2025), where I majored in geosciences with a concentration in coastal and ocean studies. My academic career is guided by a deep curiosity about design in extreme environments, including both physical extremes (climate change, natural hazards, resource scarcity, and geographic isolation) and social extremes (crisis and conflict zones, cultural marginalization, and economic disparity). My undergraduate thesis mapped the effects of inundation on critical infrastructure in hurricane-prone coastal Louisiana, raising questions about infrastructure resilience (or lack thereof) in disaster zones. My MPhil research will investigate the architectural evidence of disability in protracted displacement, focusing on how displaced disabled individuals adapt to “temporary” residences and resist spatial violence.As a Deaf and multiply disabled researcher, my lived experiences profoundly inform my work and my commitment to adaptive design solutions that challenge structural inaccessibility and disability exclusion.
Previous Education
Williams College Geosciences
Eryk Salvaggio
- Scholar-elect
- United States
- 2025 PhD Digital Humanities
- Homerton College
Eryk Salvaggio
- Scholar-elect
- United States
- 2025 PhD Digital Humanities
- Homerton College
I've worked in art and technology for more than 25 years. Since 2018, I've embraced digital humanities as a lens to examine assumptions about generative AI in policy, pedagogy, and design. My research frames generative AI as digital humanities in reverse. Where archivists grapple with organizing and preserving cultural memory, generative AI synthesizes generalities to create plausible representations of that memory. This raises fascinating questions about cultural meaning. Yet, we lack frameworks to articulate these questions, challenge these representations, or examine the practices that produce them. At Cambridge, my research will bridge archival approaches, media studies, and responsible data-training practices to produce these frameworks. Being named a Gates Scholar is an immense honor. As the first in my family to attend university, I earned degrees in New Media and Journalism from the University of Maine. I hold an MSc in Media and Communications from the London School of Economics, and in Applied Cybernetics from the Australian National University. I've been a Research Fellow at the Flickr Foundation, a Reporting Fellow at Tech Policy Press, and the Emerging Technology Research Advisor for the Siegel Family Endowment.
Previous Education
London School of Economics & Political Science (Un Media and Communications
Australian National University Applied Cybernetics
Keene State College Undeclared
Abigail Schipper
- Scholar-elect
- United States
- 2025 MPhil Engineering
- King's College
Abigail Schipper
- Scholar-elect
- United States
- 2025 MPhil Engineering
- King's College
I grew up in Portland, OR and attended MIT where I earned an S.B. in Engineering, concentrating in Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Devices. When I entered college in the Fall of 2020 in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, I wanted to help in whatever way I could, so I began volunteering as an Emergency Medical Technician with MIT Emergency Medical Services. I provided treatment and transport for people who called 911 throughout the Boston area. My experiences on the ambulance revealed to me many of the systemic issues in the emergency medical system, and I began pursuing opportunities to try and fix these issues. I researched novel drug delivery devices for areas with limited surgical capabilities and I started an organization, LifeSaveHer, that seeks to eliminate the gender disparity in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates. At Cambridge, I’ll be studying health care systems engineering, focusing on pre-hospital trauma systems in low and middle income countries. My goal is to make more equitable and efficient pre-hospital systems that can improve community safety and wellbeing.
Previous Education
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Engineering
George Shaikovski
- Scholar-elect
- Belarus
- 2025 PhD Computer Science
- Clare Hall
George Shaikovski
- Scholar-elect
- Belarus
- 2025 PhD Computer Science
- Clare Hall
I am excited by the promise of artificial intelligence to help advance science and medicine, from improving cancer diagnosis to accelerating drug discovery. Since 2020, I’ve been working on foundation models for pathology, which became the basis of several state-of-the-art cancer detection, subtyping, and digital biomarker tools. I am particularly interested in models that combine multi-modal data, e.g. images and text, to learn abstract, unified, and interpretable representations of the world and perform complex reasoning with them. This capability is paramount for the successful application of AI in medicine since such systems will have to integrate diverse, complex, and connected medical data with specialised and structured medical knowledge. In my research at Cambridge, I aim to understand the fundamental principles and limitations of learning from multi-modal data for complex reasoning, investigate how models can learn interpretable and useful representations without explicit supervision, and transfer my findings to real-world applications, such as biomedical image analysis.
Previous Education
Warsaw University of Technology Electrical Engineering
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Electrical Engineering
National Technical University Power Engineering
