Queens' is delighted to announce that three Gates Cambridge Scholars will join the College in the autumn, taking up the University's most presitigious postgraduate international scholarship.
Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Gates Cambridge Scholarship aims to identify academically outstanding students with the potential to become transformative leaders in their respective fields. Across the University as a whole, 92 Scholars have been appointed, selected from a total of 5,798 applicants. They represent 28 different nationalities, and include the first Scholars from Gambia, Georgia and Morocco.
Michael Dodson (2005) is a second-time Gates Scholar, having completed a Masters in Computer Science and Engineering at Queens' in 2007. He has spent the past decade designing, operating and securing safety-critical industrial control systems, ranging from hospital defibrillators to wind farm power converters, and returns from the United States to Cambridge to pursue a PhD in Computer Science.
"My research explores the interface between a control system and its environment, which the system senses and manipulates; how that environment could be used to maliciously modifty the control system's behaviour; and how to design resilient systems which maintain their nominal behaviour in adversarial environments," he explains. "I hope this work will form part of a foundation to build and maintain trust in these ubiquitous, safety-critical systems, even as they become more attractive targets for malicious activitiy."
Maeve Lentriccia, from Raleigh, North Carolina, is a graduate of Dartmouth College and currently pursuing an MPhil in Classics at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. As a Gates Scholar at Queens' she plans to work towards a PhD in Ancient Philosophy. She has a longstanding interest in death, dying, and mortality's impact on how we live and think about our lives.
"With Lucretius as my guide, I plan to address the following questions: To what extent does a sustained reflection on mortality direct one’s philosophical and practical activities? In what sense does such an examination influence how we understand the shape or structure of human life? How might thinking about the nature and value of death shed light on questions of well-being, metaphysical and personal identity, and prudential reasoning? In thinking through the issues involved in these discussions it is my goal not only to illuminate Lucretius’ own views, but also offer some assistance in our own engagement with the same questions."
William McInerney studied Peace, War and Defence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, before working as a poet, educator, journalist, and Executive Director of a spoken word poetry and peace education initiative. Focusing his attentions on the capacity of education to address male violence against women, he co-created and taught a men's violence prevention programme at Chapel Hill. He was awarded a Rotary Peace Fellowship to the University of Bradford, where he achieved his MA. At Queens', he will be working towards a PhD in Education.
"My research examines how creative practices and a conflict transformation framework can potentially help men develop critical consciousness, emotional intelligence, and the confidence to challenge violence-supportive norms, attitudes, and behaviours. This work seeks to contribute to ongoing efforts to reduce men’s violence against women and make gender equality real."